State Establishment Quotes
There was freedom of religion for Protestants in early New Jersey. Note that Catholics and Jews were not allowed to hold office. This constitution was in force until 1844 when the prohibition was repealed by new constitution. Under the original constitution, men were convicted for blasphemy. See {621063} .
This was more than a decade before the Bill of Rights was created and passed. Delaware was so concerned about the separation of church and state that they would not allow any religious cleric or official, to serve in any position of the state militia or government. New York State the following year {621429} placed the same prohibition against clerics serving in any branch of the government. The U. S. Bill of rights did not go that far, but there are a number of religions that also support this notion. Perhaps the most dramatic example was Pope John Paul’s prohibition of Priests running for elective office.
His belief and that of a great number of peop[le who have studied the era was that the refusal of most countries, including the United States, to accept Jewish Refugees casueing so many to remain in Europe where they were murdered by the Nazis would have been mitgated if there were a nation that would welcome them/ While that was true certainly for the early years of the Nazi persecution, the largest number of Jews were killed when the Germans overran Poland, France, Hungary, and many other countries including Eastern Europe and Russia. But there are other scholars who believe that the Nazi hatred and feal fo Jews was so great that they would not have allowed the Jews to be gone. While namy Jews woulld have been saved were Israel in existance, there would still have been a Holocaust, only one of smaller proportions they argue.
