“Let man worship one God, twenty Gods, or no God, be he Jew, Turk, Pagan, or Infidel, he is eligible to any office in the state.”

AxisofLogic/ Featured: "America's Most Insidious, Immoral Movement | By Lee Salisbury | May 2, 2005, 12:10

Lead by the likes of Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye, Tom DeLay and Karl Rove an army of misguided Christian fundamentalists, the Religious Right continue to push for tearing down the “wall of separation” established by America’s founding fathers. They claim there is no “wall of separation”, and that the framers of the Constitution intended that America be a Christian nation, implying that America’s laws should reflect biblical law. A brief survey of America’s history, taken from Robert Boston's Why The Religious Right Is Wrong, reveals what life in America was like before our Constitution was adopted when in fact Christian theocrats did rule the colonies.

In Massachusetts the Puritans ... established a theocratic rule regulating every aspect of life based upon their interpretation of the bible.

Anne Hutchinson was expelled by Gov. Winthrop because she dared to hold unauthorized meetings in her home. John Wheelwright was tried, found guilty, and banished because his preaching was heretical. A band of Quakers were hanged by these Puritan Christians. Massachusetts’ most notable act of church/state theocratic rule was the Salem witch trials of 1692. Nineteen women were accused of witchcraft.

Quakers were cruelly persecuted in almost every colony. ...

In Virginia, the Anglican Church was the state church. Quakers and Catholics were barred. Baptists were often imprisoned or publicly whipped. ...

... This was the America that spawned the thinking of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison that sought an answer to how true religious freedom could be achieved without hindering the practice of religion. Their conclusion: a secular nation that showed no favoritism toward any religion.

Baptist minister John Leland reflected the thoughts of Christians fighting for religious freedom. In response to Jefferson’s letter explaining the “wall of separation” to Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut, Leland wrote, “Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely…all should be equally free” On another occasion Leland wrote, “Let man worship one God, twenty Gods, or no God, be he Jew, Turk, Pagan, or Infidel, he is eligible to any office in the state.”

The Constitution fashioned in 1787, largely by Madison, is a secular document. It makes no mention of God, Jesus Christ, a Supreme Being, or the Ten Commandments. Thus, the Constitution’s Article 6 reads, “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any public office.” The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It is this secular document showing no religious favoritism which is responsible for freedom of religion and conscience unique to America.