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Old 03-06-2005, 08:38 AM   #22
LauraMac
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Barcelona
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No, the intent of the framers was to have a wall of separation between church and state [meaning government]

In placing the "establishment clause" in the constitution - It was Thomas Jeffersons deliberate intent that it was there to keep secular and non-secular matters apart. He wrote a letter to those working on the constituional drafts with him the following,

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate 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 should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.

Because it is one of the few areas that the founders were quite explicit in their intent - this is why the courts have ruled so uniformly over the centuries - despite the political tilt of any particular court - against government establishment or acts that seem to favor one religion or any religion at all. This isn't something evolved through court decision - it is one of the rare clearly stated articles in the Constitution.
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