Elbridge Gerry Quotes

The problem is that you can't impose the church's teachings on all Americans as a matter of law.

Congress shall not make any law infringing the rights of conscience, or establishing any religious sect or society Congress shall make no law establishing one religious sect or society in preference to others. Congress shall make no law establishing any particular denomination of religion in preference to another

We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate.

I believe in the American tradition of separation of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office - and by personal conviction - I am sworn to uphold that tradition.

Freedom of religion has been replaced by freedom from religion.

Church and state are, and must remain, separate.

The divorce between church and state should be absolute.

No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.

The ACLU sees the separation of church and state as so absolute that not a single religious word must be allowed to pass a schoolhouse door.

To the ACLU, the First Amendment speaks more directly to freedom from religion than it does to freedom of religion.

The problem is efforts by liberals to establish a wall between religion and society, in the guise of maintaining the wall between church and state.

Government needs to stay out of the religion business altogether.

There is little doubt that religious liberty is best exercised within the setting of the secular state.

My earnest regard to preserve inviolate forever, in our new empire, the great principle of religious freedom ... which is independent of any religious doctrine and not restrained by any.

I believe in a wall between church and state so high that no one can climb over it.

We do not want an official state church. If ninety-nine percent of the population were Catholics, I would still be opposed to it. I do not want civil power combined with religious power.

Secularism is a very neutral thesis that simply states that all religions, and the state – and its sources of authority – should be kept very distinct from one another so that different religions can flourish and survive without any one of them being privileged above the others so the public domain in the state can be a neutral one where everyone meets as equals.

Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than on opinions in physics or geometry.

Our Constitution was not intended to be used by ... any group to foist its personal religious beliefs on the rest of us.

No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach or practice religion.

The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn't interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet.

We believe in separation of church and state, that there should be no unwarranted influence on the church or religion by the state, and vice versa.

Under the First Amendment's prohibition of the establishment of religion, the Court has steadily made religion a matter for the private individual by driving it out of the public arena.

The prevailing notion is that the state should be neutral as to religion, and furthermore, that the best way to be neutral about it is to avoid all mention of it. By this sort of logic, nudism is the best compromise among different styles of dress. The secularist version of 'pluralism' amounts to theological nudism.

I believe that religion should be totally separated from the state. That's not the way it is today, not even in Sweden.