Lan Barnes wrote:
On Sat, March 24, 2007 4:39 pm, Ralph Shumaker wrote:
Todd Walton wrote:
If I were a Founding Father, I'd have added something about separation
of Economy and State, to go along with Church and State. I'd have to
think about it some more, though.
The Founding Fathers said nothing about separation of Church and State
*except* to make it clear that the State must stay out of the Church,
It's true that there are no constitutional prohibitions on churches (or
labor unions or Boy Scout troops or just about any group) from
participating in politics in an organized, legal manner. This is as it
should be.
However, to understand the intent of the founders on any topic, one needs
to read their other writings in which they discuss their goals in drafting
the rather spare language of the constitution. Much of this is collected
in the Federalist Papers and the less well known Anti-Federalist Papers
(the commentary of Franklin and other dissenters).
There is also the Treaty of Tripoli. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli
and scroll down to the article 11 part.
[This part of the treaty was] approved by President John Adams and
Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and ratified by the Senate.
Karl
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