James Madison Quotes

Note that in addition to getting rid of the authority of the King, New York—over a decade before the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, provided for a ban on an established church or favoring one Christian sect over another. Even then New York was a multi religious and multi ethnic society with its strong Dutch tradition along with the English tradition. New York did not go as far as the First Amendment would do later in terms of freedom of religion. NY only mentioned Christian sects. However they did implement separation of church and state and an establishment clause. See {621429} for another clause that ensures separation of church and state.

A group of citizens of Mecklenburgh County, NC gathered together and produced their own “Declaration of Independence” a little over a year before The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776. Some people refer to the earlier document as the Mecklenburgh Declaration of Independence. It is not known how much Alexander personally wrote however he signed as the Chairman of the convention. The delegates voted to send a copy to the Continental Congress, and the reader will recognize some of the similar language which found its way into the 1776 document. The Mecklenburgh Resolution also contained a structure of government.

Backus was the first of the American clerics to espouse the position that in order for there to be a Christian nation, the state must be separate from the Church.

Backus was the first of the American clerics to espouse the position that in order for there to be a Christian nation, the state must be separate from the Church.

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York

This sura is seen as a limit on power of a ruler.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is a “worldwide Islamic political party.” It is banned as a terrorist, violence provoking institution in most of the Muslim countries and many nations in Europe.

Legislation in reaction to the Federal Courts requiring the Alabama Supreme Court Justice to remove his religious sculpture from the State Court Building. The proposed legislation garnered a few more sponsors but went nowhere. It is illustrative of the views of the Right Wing Radical Fringe of the time.

Congress had passed the Edmunds Act prohibiting plural marriage. Taylor, who himself had 7 wives and 35 children, went “underground” and secretly operated the church from exile.

Waite said that exempting plural marriage from criminality under the guise of religious freedom was to make religion superior to the law

Niemoller, a World War I U-boat commander and clergyman, was jailed for rejecting the National Socialist ideology and for appealing to German Christians not to embrace the new paganism of Nazism and Fascism.

All foreign immigrants were welcome provided they would “renounce” their allegiance to an foreign ruler or religious leader. The latter was really directed at Roman Catholics. European history had many instances where the Pope and the Vatican plotted with different forces to produce armed rebellion in various states to maintain a Catholic Establishment. England and Ireland were both the subjects of Papal revolutionary initiatives and the Americans were well aware of it. Popes and cardinals had ordered good Catholics to take various political positions including what was treason and sedition. The fear of political control of American Catholics motivated the inclusion of Ecclesiastical renouncement to become a naturalized citizen. Also note that it was the States who controlled citizenship at that time and not the Federal Government.

At the time, almost every nation or colony had an established religion, and there came a group that believed that if there was freedom of conscience, there would be more loyalty and security. The king describes this notion as a “lively experiment” and it was, but it was successful and became the religious model for the new United States.

This was a very interesting quotation in that there was no scripture of any religion that even mentions the United States nor which nations would lead the world and which should follow.

Stephani had written a legal analysis of the 1555 “Peace of Augsburg” and used the phrase of the quotation to describe the most basic and important legal agreement. It was that the recognized religion of a nation would be determined by the religion of the king or other ruler. Prior, Protestant and Catholic nations were constantly warring with each other and supporting insurrections in another country of its co-religionists and often warring with the other country where some towns were mostly Protestant and others, mostly Catholic. The treaty which dealt with Europe initially allowed Catholic citizens of a nation ruled by a Protestant to emigrate to a Catholic nation and the reverse. Those who chose to remain, would therefore be a minority of the country where their king was of a different faith. This principle is one of the reasons that English law requires the King or Queen to be the Head of the Church of England. In effect the Protestants controlling England at the time guaranteed that the sovereign was a Protestant and could not have a Catholic spouse in line for the throne. This then guaranteed that England would remain Protestant since the ruler was Protestant. Other European nations, Protestant and Catholic, had similar schemes and many still have them to this day.

The People of Basra were not Christians or Jews. Most were then Zoroastrians who the Prophet also allowed to maintain their religion if they paid the special tax.