Some people claim there is no "separation of church and state" in the constitution but wouldn't (cont)

Question

those people be the first to scream if the government tried to interfere with or outlaw their church's activities?

Sdb, your church only has to register as a not-for-profit organization if they want to get out of paying taxes. That is for the benefit of the church.

If the first amendment were really followed, your church would have to pay taxes.

Answer 1

Those people need to read some of the documents the country was founded on. Let me dig one up real quick...

Ah yes, the Bill of Rights.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Probably need to spell it out again

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"

It's called the Establishment Clause, and it's been ruled many times in the Supreme Court to keep religion separated from our government and public institutions.

Edit: Wrong Fish. Do you want to read the First Amendment again for the first time?

Stevie B: I added "public institutions", for example schools, because I was referring to Supreme Court rulings. I can add some of those cases too, but those aren't the Constitution, just our highest court's interpretation, and that has been how they have interpreted it.

Answer 2

The phrase" separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution.

The phrase comes from a Supreme Court Ruling.
The Constitution does state that the Government shall not establish a State religion (as was done in Britain.).

Therefore the spirit of the Constitution is that the State has no say in the church and its function in society.

Answer 3

The words "separation of church and state" DON'T appear in any official government documents authored by the founding fathers. This concept and these particular words were invented by an ACLU attorney named Leo Pfeffer in 1947 in the Supreme Court case of Everson versus Board of Education of Ewing Township. That liberal supreme court imposed it on the nation by a 5 to 4 vote.

The purpose of the First Amendment is that the Framers meant that Congress couldn't establish a national church. They did not intend to forbid every little activity on government property or partially funded by the government.

Answer 4

What the First Ammendment says is "Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Answer 5

The Government will one day intervein and will cause the world to unite in one gobal Government and world Religious Order and those who come under the laws of the United Nations will have to receive a "Mark" in order to buy or sell anything! Those who receive this device now known as a computer Micro or Veri-chip which is painlessly injected underneath the skin of the right hand will not be able to enter the kingdom of God and His Son, Jesus Christ and those who refuse it will become criminals to this new world order, jailed and put to death. It is written in God's Holy Word. Go to Revelations 13 chap. If you want to know more about this Micro-chip which will bring about a cashless society and will hold your personal identity as well as tract your movement everywhere, go to Trumpetmin.org and know that there was never to be a separation from God and his people whether in Church or in the State...How foolish....

Answer 6

Well, I will clarify my position on that. Of course it is there. My problem is with people inserting all over the place where it does not apply.

Public schools are not the state, they never have been. All are locally owned and locally operated. Public areas are not the state. Public parks are not the state.

The separation of church and state was written in to keep any church from dictating to the government as it did in England. And that is all it ever meant.

Answer 7

A government that requires all churches to register as non-profit organizations is already interfering with church activities.

Answer 8

Religious people USED to understand that separation of church and state was for their benefit, but somehow they have lost their way. Bad leadership and an upsurge of people who selfishly desire that THEIR religion be the only one protected are to blame.

Answer 9

In 1947, in the case Everson v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court declared, “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”

The “separation of church and state” phrase which they invoked, and which has today become so familiar, was taken from an exchange of letters between President Thomas Jefferson and the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, shortly after Jefferson became President.

President Jefferson's Reply:

Messrs. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, and Stephen s. Nelson
A Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut.

Washington, January 1, 1802

Gentlemen,--The affectionate sentiment of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.

Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802

* A cite for this letter could read:
Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert E. Bergh, ed. (Washington, D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1904), Vol. XVI, pp. 281-282.

Answer 10

In the time of Joseph Smith there was but the government didn't follow it