Reply #44: Logically, if the Founding Fathers had wanted "State-Religion", they would

[Tigress DEM]

have stayed in England. Original colonists came here so they would be free to practice religious beliefs according to their own conscience and not to be told by the state what religion and practices were their legal obligations.

Or as Jesus said, "Give unto Cesar what is Cesar's and give unto God that which is God's."

Someone who respects their own religion really should not want to muddy the waters of faith with the unstable and temperamental antics of politics. God's realm is above the world, not of it and God deals with us as unique individuals and each is to be accountable to God and God alone for our full moral actions.

Government intervenes in such issues when the very lives and survival of its people are at stake and uses a system of justice that works to be fair (hopefully) but not something that in anyway replaces the justice of God. IE we put mass murders away because they are a threat to the public.

If government tries to take the place of God in any way shape or form, then it becomes a false idol. People who care about their faith and believe in God understand that He is separate from the world of politics and that His rule is through the hearts of His believers and through His own means that do not depend upon the vagaries of political appetites.

Different take. Spin it back around and see if they could take the State-Religion if it were Buddhism or Wicca for instance. Would they sit and tolerate being forced to speak words and perform actions that went against their own faith, for the sake of the State Religion, whatever it is? Even if it were "Christian" - which type? Lutheran? Which Senate? Catholic? EVERYONE? Inquisition anyone?