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Respecting an establishment of religion8/16/2023 ![]() It established a separation of church and state that prohibited the federal government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” It also prohibits the government, in most cases, from interfering with a person’s religious beliefs or practices. The First Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791. Madison would go on to draft the First Amendment, a part of the Bill of Rights that would provide constitutional protection for certain individual liberties including freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the press, and the rights to assemble and petition the government. In 1785, Virginia statesman (and future president) James Madison argued against state support of Christian religious instruction. This broke with European tradition by allowing people of any faith (or no faith) to serve in public office in the United States. The Constitution prohibits the use of religious tests as qualification for public office. Religion was mentioned only once in the U.S. Rhode Island became the first colony with no established church and the first to grant religious freedom to everyone, including Quakers and Jews.Īs Virginia’s governor in 1779, Thomas Jefferson drafted a bill that would guarantee the religious freedoms of Virginians of all faiths-including those with no faith-but the bill did not pass into law. Williams then moved south and founded Rhode Island. In 1635 Roger Williams, a Puritan dissident, was banned from Massachusetts. Catholics, Quakers and other non-Puritans were banned from the colony. However, the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony didn’t tolerate any opposing religious views. The Puritans and Pilgrims arrived in New England in the early 1600s after suffering religious persecution in England. The Spanish commander wrote the king that he had hanged the settlers for “scattering the odious Lutheran doctrine in these Provinces.” The Spanish, who were largely Catholic and occupied much of Florida at the time, slaughtered the Huguenots at Fort Caroline. More than half a century before the Pilgrims set sail in the Mayflower, French Protestants (called Huguenots) established a colony at Fort Caroline near modern-day Jacksonville, Florida. America wasn’t always a stronghold of religious freedom.
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