If you want to know what the Founders thought about the proper role of religion in government, they left us an owner's manual.
It's called the Constitution.
It only refers to religion three times, and every time, it makes it clear that the Founders wanted it far removed from the government.
This lawyer keeps insisting the Ten Commandments were a very, very important part of the founding but offers zero proof (because there is none)
He finally says, well, Moses is on the SCOTUS building -- built in the 1930s! -- and yes, he's there, but so are Muhammed, Confucious, Hammurabi ....
1. No religious test for office holders -- a huge rejection of the kind of theocratic government the religious right seeks
2. No establishment of religion by the federal government
3. No interference by the federal government in individuals' decision to worship or not worship
That's it!
If the Founders had wanted this country to be a theocracy, seems like they probably would've mentioned it in the actual Constitution, right?
Or if they spaced on it, maybe in the Bill of Rights a few years later?
Oh, but you found a quote from one of them in a private letter? Cool. Cool cool cool.
Serious question. Would the Constitution prohibit the re-establishment of religion by the states? Seems like this SCOTUS would just like, gesture towards New England in the Early Republic and call it a day
Clarence Thomas has been making noises about this in his opinions. His theory is essentially that 14th amendment incorporation against the states neatly skipped over the establishment clause, and so states are still free to do whatever.
