When did the seperation of state and church started (US)? Since the beginning of the constitution?

Question

I saw an interesting question just now. So, here is mine. I am curious. Assuming it was thought of much earlier than now, how did it work? Most of the people did belong to one religion, right?

Honest question guys. No pun intended.

Answer 1

Yes, since a lot of the people were coming to America at that time to escape the tyrrany of English rule. and most of them were being pursecuted in England about their religion, and came her to practice it, and in safety.
Henry the eighth made the official church of England anglican, and Catholocism was outlawed, as was any other religion.
Some of our founding fathers were pilgrims, they came here on the Mayflower, their decendants populate our country.You knew that! The Native Americans had a feast with them, we call it Thanksgiving.
Outlawing and persecuting people of a religion not of the one of the people in power is not a new concept. It has been practiced throught the history of mankind.
Our separation of church of state is constitutional, to avoid someone in power thinking they have the power to be like Henry, and make laws to regulate churchs and religion. Our founding fathers wanted a truly free country[unless one was a slave or an indentured servant]..
and in time, their descendants outlawed the religions of the native Americans, persecuted them, taught their religion as the one and only true religion.

Answer 2

The First Amendment begins by forbidding a state religion. In an 1802 letter, Thomas Jefferson explained that part was meant to build a "wall of separation between church and state". It is not recent judges' decisions, as some Christrians wrongly claim, but was the intention of many of the Founding Fathers. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin and others were Deists who say there was a creator but he made the universe so that it can operate alone and takes no further part in it. Many Deists became atheists. Jefferson was accused of being one, and a study of his writings proves that, e.g. he told his nephew in a letter to study the Bible critically and objectively like any othe book and that after such a study, one might well conclude that there is no God. Jefferson would not disagree with that conclusion, he said.

Answer 3

Not really. The colonies were quite a mixing pot. People came here for various reasons, and the comfortable Christian types were not the most likely.

Many came to escape persecution. Quakers, Economites, Shakers, Puritans etc. and so on were not main stream Christians and their way of life didn't really fit with Europe so they came to get away from it and the last thing they wanted was another system that might persecute them.

But it was also common that the adventurous type came just for the fun of it. These often were not religious people at all but the rebellious type that wanted the lack of civilization and law that the colonies afforded.

Many of the actual participants in the Revolution were anti-authority. That is WHY they were willing to risk their life fighting for freedom. These were not the sheepish followers of anything. A lot of the money behind it was from the wealthy Masons. Masons do believe in a god, but they have a very loose definition of him. Many of them were Deists and not Christian at all.

But as to the origins, you would find mentions of it from Socrates. So it is an OLD idea.

Answer 4

The separation of church and state has been in place since the forming of our country. Yes, most people were Christians.
The founding fathers did not want to allow the Church of England to influence our government directly. Many countries at that time were dominated of churches and the founders wanted a free nation where the government was of the people, by the people and for the people.

( btw, many people use the separation part to say that religion has no place in of schools. That is wrong, the public schools are NOT the state)

Answer 5

It started right in 1610. One faction of Christian Settlers totally believed in separation of Church and state.

Others, however, didn't.

No one belonged to any one religon. By 1620 there are Anabaptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Catholics, Espiscoplians, Quakers, Amish, Pennsylvania Dutch, Lutherans.

There were a few diests and decline to staters, mostly sent by England to supervise and adminstrate.

By 1700 through the work and efforts of the Religious settlers, America became profitable and the Carpetbaggers arrived from England with the agnosticism, diesm, and capitalism.

Those were the people who seized power and wrote the constitution. It was not the Religious Farmer out in the sticks doing that. He just voted if he felt like it.

The Constitution was written by a bunch of opportunitists, who wanted to break from England, who sezied power away from the Religious who has previous ceased Power away from the Indigionous and the Third Generation Politicans, Scinetists, Lawyers and Philosophers dominated.

Answer 6

Strictly speaking, there is no separation of Church and State. Never in the Constitution is that phrase used. Rightly so; if people of conscience couldn't use their moral and religious values as part of the way that they come up with laws, very few conservative people would run for office. There can be no state religion imposed, but that is as far as the First Amendment goes. Some people might think it'd be a good thing, if few conservatives were to run for office. but I know conservatism is the only thing that keeps a government and a law enforcement establishment on even keels, and the more defendant-friendly bent I see in ours lately worries me.

Answer 7

The separation of church and state was carefully included in our Constitution (Bill of Rights 1791). The intentions of the founders has been made clear in their own writings, particularly those of Jefferson and Madison.

Most of the population was Christian, but there were many different denominations. Prior to the separation, many states had a state church that consisted of ONE of these denominations. All the other Christian denominations (as well as all non-Christian religions) were considered wrong and heretical.

The founders realized that any government influence on the church was detrimental to our religious freedom.

Answer 8

the separation of church and state is not mandated by the constitution...that particular admonishment was from thomas jefferson in a letter to the danbury baptists and resulted in the framing of the first amendment to the constitution in the immortal words, " congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...."in other words, the state cannot promote any religion as the 'official' religion of the state or country. THAT was and is, a very good thing indeed!

Answer 9

Legally, it started as soon as the amendments were ratified. But there were many existing entanglements that persisted for quite some time (some state constitutions had articles that barred atheists from running for any office, for instance). Usually the court cases to challenge these entanglements were from various religions that were being hurt. One of the first cases to challenge mandatory Bible readings in school was in the Edgerton (Wisconsin) school district on the behalf of the Roman Catholic plaintiffs. This was in 1899. And for the record: The ACLU did not exist at the time for them to be blamed for "kicking God out of the Wisconsin public school system". It was a case of the Protestant majority infringing upon the religious rights of the Roman Catholic minority using the school district as their proselytization medium.

Answer 10

Most of the people who founded the U.S were descendants of the British.The British had a state religion,the Church Of England founded by Henry VIII.We wanted people to be free to choose their religion and not have a "Church of the United States".So you can be whatever you want.There is no separation of church and state in the Constitution.Just freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights.
The idea of separation came from a private letter written by Thomas Jefferson and the liberals have been trying to convince everyone it is in the Constitution ever since.