Benjamin Franklin Quotes
When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
The Founding Fathers represented a wide range of religious beliefs from orthodox Christians to Agnostics and Atheists. Most considered themselves Christian, but having studied the terrible results of European religious dissention in Government were careful to keep government and religion separate. In New York City, for example, when George Washington was first inaugurated as President, there was no religious ceremony in the government buildings. However, the President and all the Congress then went to Trinity Church close by and had a religious service. The earliest example of separation of church and state was a separation of official religion—not an elimination of religion.
Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, Governor of Pennsylvania, Member of the Continental Congress & the Constitutional Convention, Governor of Pennsylvania, President of the Pennsylvania Assembly, U.S. Minister to France, Postmaster General of the American Colonies, Letter to a friend, Quoted in Benjamin F. Underwood, The Practical Separation of Church & State, 1876
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Judge Moore was trying to justify oaths to God or other state references to a Judeo-Christian God as not violating the 1st Amendment stricture about the government endorsing a particular religion. Note however his {33827} quotation.
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York
Bigots in Judeo Christian societies have always justified their bigotry with Biblical passages which they take our of context or interpret as supporting—sometimes commanding—their views. Just as the overwhelming majority of clerics in the world condemned slavery just before the Civil War, a few Southern ministers could be found who claimed that slavery was God’s will and cited Biblical passages in support of their inhuman viewpoints.
Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A polymath, he was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He founded many civic organizations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania.
