Church Funding Quotes
Even thought Iceland had an official church, it was not favored by requiring citizens to donate to it. All religions were treated equally and the official amount could be paid to whatever church the citizen belonged to. They even made provisions for atheists who would not have to donate to a religious organization.
Protestant ministers were employees of the state. It is with this background that the First Amendment was created and ratified.
The law passed reserved some Federal land for a Baptist church. Madison actually slightly misquoted the Constitution.
Kennedy did favor Federal Aid to Parochial Schools for schoolbooks and bussing as these were “social services.”
He argued that the clergy should cease to own lands and peasants and that bishops and the Pope should give up their temporal power. He was labeled a heretic for these views.
One of the “crises” created by the American Revolution was the cutoff of imported Bibles. The ministers petitioned Congress for a subsidized printing of the Bible. The petition was referred to a committee which included John Adams. The committee recommended against the subsidized printing idea, but did recommend that 20,000 English language Protestant Bibles be imported from Holland. However, just as the recommendation was made, the Continental Congress had to flee Philadelphia to escape the oncoming British. When Congress finally met again, the Bible issue got lost among other important problems resulting in an American Bible shortage which the young nation survived. It was not until 1782 that the first Bibles were printed in America.
