Religious Recognition Quotes
Here we have an example of a government that tried to go into the Religion business. They wanted Christian religion but not the Catholic Church which at the time was the only Christian church. Many of the most extreme French revolutionists had a problem with religion. They were personally believers and recognized that most French people were. But the organized Roman Catholic Church was a major ally and supporter of the hated monarchy, and at the time was extremely corrupt at the expense of the people. The nobility were also the highest officials of the church in France. One solution they tried was to have the “people’s government” establish days and methods of worship, an effort that in retrospect appears ludicrous to us today.
In that era the favoritism of the government—especially state and local government—in favor of the of the Protestant Christians. Politicians started challenging the clear unconstitutional favoritism. The reformers were Republicans often referred to by the Democrats as “Godless Republicans”. A century later the Republicans would oppose strict separation of church and state with the Southerners and Fundamentalist Christians in their party and the Democrats fighting to maintain strict separation of church and state.
