Separation of Church an State (America)

1 Early history
1.1 Former state churches in British North America
1.1.1 Protestant colonies
1.1.2 Catholic colonies
1.1.3 Colonies with no established church
1.1.4 Tabular Summary
1.2 Colonial support for separation
1.3 Jefferson, Madison, and the "wall of separation"
1.4 Patrick Henry, Massachusetts, and Connecticut
1.5 Test acts
2 Article 6 of the United States Constitution
3 Bill of Rights
4 The 14th Amendment
5 The Treaty of Tripoli
6 The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
7 Supreme Court since 1947
8 Interpretive controversies
8.1 Politics and religion in the United States
9 See also
10 References
11 Bibliography
12 External links
12.1 American court battles over separation
12.2 Other

The separation of church and state is a legal and political principle derived from various documents of several of the Founders of the United States. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The modern concept is often credited to the writings of English philosopher John Locke, but the phrase "separation of church and state" is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, where Jefferson spoke of the combined effect of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. His purpose in this letter was to assuage the fears of the Danbury, Connecticut Baptists, and so he told them that this wall had been erected to protect them. The metaphor was intended, as The U.S. Supreme Court has currently interpreted it since 1947, to mean that religion and government must stay separate for the benefit of both, including the idea that the government must not impose religion on Americans nor create any law requiring it. It has since been in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court,[1] though the Court has not always fully embraced the principle.[2][3][4][5][6]

[edit] Early history
Many early immigrant groups traveled to America to worship freely, particularly after the English Civil War and religious conflict in France and Germany.[7] They included nonconformists like the Puritans, as well as Catholics. Despite a common background, the groups' views on religious toleration were mixed. While some such as Roger Williams of Rhode Island and William Penn ensured the protection of religious minorities within their colonies, others like the Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony had established churches. The Dutch colony of New Netherland established the Dutch Reformed Church and outlawed all other worship, though enforcement was sparse. Religious conformity was desired partly for financial reasons: the established Church was responsible for poverty relief, so dissenting churches would have a significant edge.

[edit] Former state churches in British North America
[edit] Protestant colonies
The colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Haven, and New Hampshire were founded by Puritan, Calvinist, Protestants.
New Netherland was founded by Dutch Reformed Calvinists.
The colonies of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were officially Church of England.
[edit] Catholic colonies
When New France was transferred to Great Britain in 1763, the Roman Catholic Church remained under toleration, but Huguenots were allowed entrance where they had formerly been banned from settlement by Parisian authorities.
The Colony of Maryland was founded by a charter granted in 1632 to George Calvert, secretary of state to Charles I, and his son Cecil, both recent converts to Roman Catholicism. Under their leadership many English Catholic gentry families settled in Maryland. However, the colonial government was officially neutral in religious affairs, granting toleration to all Christian groups and enjoining them to avoid actions which antagonized the others. On several occasions low-church dissenters led insurrections which temporarily overthrew the Calvert rule. In 1689, when William and Mary came to the English throne, they acceded to demands to revoke the original royal charter. In 1701 the Church of England was proclaimed, and in the course of the eighteenth century Maryland Catholics were first barred from public office, then disenfranchised, although not all of the laws passed against them (notably laws restricting property rights and imposing penalties for sending children to be educated in foreign Catholic institutions) were enforced, and some Catholics even continued to hold public office.
Spanish Florida was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, the British divided Florida into two colonies. Both East and West Florida continued a policy of toleration for the Catholic Residents.
[edit] Colonies with no established church
The Province of Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers, but the colony never had an established church.
West Jersey, also founded by Quakers, prohibited any establishment.
Delaware Colony had no established church.
The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, founded by religious dissenters forced to flee the Massachusetts Bay colony, is widely regarded as the first polity to grant religious freedom to all its citizens.
[edit] Tabular Summary
Colony Denomination Disestablished1
Connecticut Congregational 1818
Georgia Church of England 17892
Maryland Church of England 1776
Massachusetts Congregational 1780 (in 1833 state funding suspended)3
New Brunswick Church of England
New Hampshire Congregational 17904
Newfoundland Church of England
North Carolina Church of England 17765
Nova Scotia Church of England 1850
Prince Edward Island Church of England
South Carolina Church of England 1790
Canada West Church of England 1854
West Florida Church of England N/A6,8
East Florida Church of England N/A7,8
Virginia Church of England 17869
West Indies Church of England 1868

Change the Law let God back in,
Chaos runs a muck satan's hand,
Where is the Love an Faith, lost in our Constitution,
Real it bring back Faith an Love an the Almighty God.