Religious Equality Quotes
The treaty, which was also ratified by the Senate, was actually drafted by Joel Barlow, the U. S. Consul in Tripoli. It was the first official statement of the United States on its religious basis or lack thereof.
Ahmad denied saying this although the reporter who wrote the original story insists that he did and she wrote it down at the time. Ahmad did not deny the statement when it first appeared in the Fremont Argus, but only did so several years later.
Opponents of the strict separation of church and state use this quotation to support their view. However, Story herein describes public sentiment, not what was passed and ratified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. See {614309} and {614310} for his statements from the same work that show that there was no question in his mind but that church and state are separated by the Constitution and the First Amendment.
Those who claim that the founding fathers contemplated religion as a critical component of government often point to this article of the South Carolina Constitution. However, they ignore the almost simultaneous passage of the New York constitution as in {612166}. When the framers of the Constitution met in 1787 in Philadelphia the separation of church and state issue was not really resolved and awaited the Bill of Rights where the separatists won out.
Followers of the religious views of January Hus, 1369-1415 Hus was excommunicated and executed for his views that parts of the church were corrupt.
Like Christian Churches, different Jewish Sects had differing views on whether homosexuals should be ordained as rabbis. This Seminary was opposed, hence drawing the protestors.
Jefferson drafted the law which became the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution. Others wanted change in some of Jefferson’s language to be Christian Centric but the delegates rejected that idea. See {623696}. The separation of church and state was not to be total. The state and the law was required to protect religion—all religions including those thought to be heretical.
Vladimir Lenin. In their quest for world revolution, the Russian Communists had more problems with arguments in the United States whose reforms and economy had produced a very high standard of living. They knew that to effect a revolution, they had to reach the middle class and the intellectuals. They had little economically to attack America with but they were able to attack the United States morally. In addition to religious discrimination, the Communists attacked other forms of discrimination anti-Black, legal, racial segregation (See behavior in the related quote.)
