How Did The Founding Fathers Maintain Religious Freedom In The United States?

During the 18th and 19th century, or to be more precise, The Great Awakening was a response to the Enlightenment. Against the Enlightenment that is. That being so, it ended up being a major cause of the revolution in the long run. Not only that but the new religious messages that were emerging were increasingly more democratic overall becoming, in the U.S, messages of greater quality. “Old lights” and “New lights” sprung up and began disagreeing with each other. The effects of the Great Awakening caused religion to have an infringing position on the states. Thus, the people thought it best if the two ideals (Religion and the State) were separate from one another so people aren’t governed by other people’s feelings on religion.

First lets review the first amendment. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free

"Seperation of church and state" was about religious freedom, which we protect in this country. It did more than that (unbeknownst to us at the time). In passing this to protect civil liberties, we made way for other, more important liberties, to fall by the way. The Pledge of Alligience that we all rose for every single morning in school, the same pledge we all took for granted, was soon to be forgotten.

Jefferson didn’t want the state to establish religion that would lead to state persecution of religious freedom — the reason why the Pilgrims came to America. That’s why the First Amendment to our US Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In America, the citizen has the freedom of religion; the state

Civil liberties, as denoted in the Bill of Rights, had limited the government’s actions by providing “freedoms from” the government. Because the government could not take away the people’s rights, the Bill of Rights listed “thou shalt nots,” which “limit[ed] its [the government’s] jurisdiction” (Lowi pg. 107). A famous substantive limitation, or a restriction against what Congress could do, was, and is, the establishment clause, or the separation between Church and State. As the first component of the First Amendment, the establishment clause impedes the government’s ability from establishing a national Church; consequently, due to religious persecution in England in the 1700’s, the establishment clause serves to protect the citizens from the possible tyranny of religion by permitting the accommodation of all religions through assistance and by not allowing the government to show “no favoritism”. Therefore, the United States refers to God on “U.S. currency”

If our past presidents like George Washington, James Madison, and John Adams would have wanted the government involved with religion, they would have done something about it and made it visible in the document that they govern us with today. “Jefferson believed that God, not government, was the Author and source of our rights and that the government, therefore, was to be prevented from interference with those rights.” In other words he stated that they should not control religious activities in public, and that they should control the power of the government instead to prohibit those expressions. The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there of.” The ones who created the documents and the main part of our government wanted the government of the United States to function without religious influence. Another reason why the government should not make any decisions based on religion is because not everyone has the same beliefs, or believes in the same

When the Founding Fathers put the Constition together, they put the freedom of speech, religion, and press. They put the freedom of religion in there, so people can come to America for religious refuge. America was a place where you can worship whomever you want

If America was founded as a Christian nation, why did the government set the policy that there should be no national religion? America was not founded on Christianity not only because US government should not involve itself in the matters of religion but also the major belief of the Founding Fathers was Deism. “The right to freedom of religion is so central to American democracy that it was enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” Even if the Founding Fathers were religious, it still would not indicate a Christian foundation. Besides, they were deists after all. For instance, Benjamin Franklin declared himself as a thorough Deist in his autobiography. “It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a

The United States of America was founded by Europeans who left their homeland to come to a country where they could worship God the way they wanted without the fear of persecution. However, the early Puritans maintained control over how people could worship, and would banish or arrest people who did not agree with them or chose to worship in a different way. Religion was an integral part of the lives of the first colonists. Fast-forward four hundred years to the twenty-first century, and one can see that freedom of religion is still an important part of American life. I cannot imagine living in a country where someone could tell me what I had to believe, where I must go to church, and how I must worship. Many Americans today were born and

The Bill for Establishing Freedom of Religion was written in 1779 by Thomas Jefferson it’s goal to keep the country from implementing a national established church. In 1786, the Virginia Assembly passed the bill, making Virginia the example of religious liberty. This bill was a precursor to the First Amendment of the Constitution, which discusses the freedom of religion, and the separation of the church and state. At the time this Bill was written, the country had just won the Revolutionary War, and was in the process of establishing a government. Patrick Henry wanted to make Christianity the established religion of the country. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Bill to reason why the separation of church and state would be better for the country,

The United States Constitution is the founding document of the United States of America. It represents not only the liberty of the country, but also the principles and beliefs that this country was founded upon. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a ratified correction to that document stating “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.” (U.S. Const. Amend. I) In the very first portion of the First Amendment, the framers of the Constitution wrote the Old English equivalent to “Congress cannot pass any laws promoting or demoting any religion.” The United States Government has been very diligent about staying within the reach of the Constitution until it offered churches the opportunity to become tax exempt and began ignoring the First Amendment.

Religion has always played a major role in government. Before having a settlement within America, there has always been religious conflicts, such as, the thirty years war and the hundred year war. Religious conflicts began arising in America since early civilization. Reformers came along to escape persecution from European regulations like Puritans. Even today, it has been an ongoing conflict since Muslims are being discriminated, ongoing religious wars like the Sunni and the Shia, and religious rights. Without the Freedom of Religion, Americans would not be able to unify different ethnicities, cultures, or religion. One religion that is always incorporated into the American government is Christianity; the American pledge of Allegiance,

The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States establishes religious freedom: “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 people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Against the Constitutional background, Thomas Jefferson wrote a Bill for establishing Religious Freedom. The Bill was passed at the Virginia General Assembly in 1777. Jefferson believed that it was not enough to have a Constitutional provision that debars Congress from establishing a religion for all. But it is equally important to separate the Church from the state to guarantee Religious Freedom where each and every one will

“ 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” -First Amendment, U.S. Constitution.

The first amendment to the constitution prohibited the establishment of a national church, and guaranteed the free exercise of religion. In the beginning, American belonged to Britain; however, people realized that Britain’s government did not pertain to the lives of the British settlers in early America, taking into consideration they were so far away, and so this is why people created the Declaration of Independence (Peter K. 2005).