On 28/10/2006, at 12:25 AM, Dan Minette wrote:
Rather constitutional rights are drafted in a democratic process,
by the
majority, to be a future, binding restriction on the majority.
So the views of the Founding Fathers which prevailed were those of
the majority, especially those on separations of religious
establishment and government? No they weren't. Minority view at the
time...
Let's look at that. The Bill of Rights are amendments to the
Constitution.
Article V of the US Constitution gives two means of amending the
Constitution. One of these, the constitutional convention, has yet
to be
used (we were close to it about 20 years ago). The other has been
used
numerous times. It requires approval of 2/3rds vote of each House of
Congress and 3/4ths of the state assemblies.
Unless there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I think we
should see
such a strong vote as indicating popular approval.
You can if you like. It doesn't reflect the history. The population
at the time was overwhelmingly Christian, but many of the founders
were lapsed, or deists. Their views on a secular federal government
were very much a minority view at the time. That they signed the
Constitution and then convinced the Congress to approve the Bill of
Rights was testament to their vision and skills of persuasion. And it
was a pretty fine job they did (oddly placed comma in the second
amendment notwithstanding... ;-) ). There's no mention of any
religion at all in the Constitution, apart from to say that no
religious test may be required as a qualification to hold office.
This was almost unthinkable in the late 1700s.
Charlie
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