Tom DeLay Quotes
I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church.
Tom DeLay, U. S. Congressman (Republican, TX), House Majority Leader, Speech to a TV evangelists’ Congressional Luncheon, July 2001
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is one of the key documents showing the “wall of separation of church and state” was in use in early America. Almost 200 years later the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court seemed ignorant of this communications. See William Rehnquist: {373663}
Madison, while a member of the House, had opposed the appropriation of funds for Congressional Chaplains and lost. Strict constructionists often quote his statements regarding Congressional Chaplains. Loose constructionists point to the fact that a majority of the Congress indeed appropriated the funds.
While this principle is very clear to us today, and was to the people who originally ratified The Constitution, there were many attempts by Christian groups to establish a privileged position for Christianity. For example, for years the Sunday Sabbath was legally enforced by unconstitutional Blue Laws that prohibited businesses from operating on the Christian Sabbath and prohibited activities that compete with Sunday church attendance. Supreme Court Justice Story even argued that the First Amendment allowed Christian religious supremacy and Cooley wrote this to refute Story’s now discredited doctrine.
This is a critical quotation on the government establishment of religion issue. There are a few people who have argued over the years that the Founding Fathers and their culture was religious and where they were careful to avoid favoring one religion over another, they did NOT intend to put atheism on the same equal plane as religion as far as government action is concerned. However, some of the Founding Fathers were atheists, and some others like John Adams were deists—they believed in a God but not in the Trinity or in Judaism or any organized religion. So this quotation makes it clear that the First Amendment does NOT favor religion over non religion or secularism. Atheism must be on an equal footing but not on a higher plane.
Thomas Dale DeLay is an American author and former politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005.
