Reply #12: nuances

[iverglas]

While it is likely true that your founders & framers had more in mind than just religious freedom within Christianity, your original colonizers didn't have even that in mind, in fact.

The Puritans were not at all concerned about religious freedom in general. They were concerned about *their* religious freedom.

Aha, a US source that says the same thing, in the same words:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web03/segment2.html

The Puritans were seeking freedom, but they didn't understand the idea of toleration. They came to America to find religious freedom—but only for themselves.

... Ministers like the Reverend John Cotton preached that it was wrong to practice any religion other than Puritanism. Those who did would be helping the devil. They believed they followed the only true religion so everyone should be forced to worship as they did. "{Tolerance is} liberty … to tell lies in the name of the Lord," said John Cotton.

I gather they particularly hated the Quakers, in addition to RCers.

Unfortunately, that early Puritanism seems to have had a much stronger influence on contemporary US society than the principles in the constitution that came after them, and is very clearly visible in the political right wing. They are "puritan" not just in their ideas about what other people should do in private, but in the very ideology that underpins the notion that their ideas about such things should influence public policy.