Reply #17: The founding fathers

[Thats my opinion]

Were clear that the European system which combined church and state would not work here. But in various degrees they were religious, and God and religious ethics are written all over what they wrote. No church law could become national policy. But religious ethics and even religious language were never ruled out. They did not want a state church, but neither did they want religion only to be a private matter. They tried to frame the First Amendment to say both things, and that has generated two centuries of legal controversy.

Those conservative forces that want to establish religious rules are outside the Constitution and must be thwarted. But religion in public life is here to stay, and that has national implications. Without the religious work of Martin Luther King and the entire civil rights movement, there never would have been a voting rights law. Yet we must always be on guard lest the move to establish a legal system based on somebody's doctrine sneaks in.