Religious liberty

On the day Congress ratified the Constitution, it directed President Washington to proclaim a day of national prayer and thanksgiving.

John Adams, our second president, warned in 1798, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

While supporting religious freedom, our third president, Thomas Jefferson, wrote that he did not want his administration to be a “government without religion.” He also wrote, “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?”

The idea of separation of church and state is based on the notion that religious liberty will be promoted if you separate church and state. In reality, it has the effect of suppressing religious liberty.

The “What if Justice Moore was a Buddhist?” argument is pretty lame. None of the founding fathers quoted Mohammed or Buddha in their writings, and Justice Moore is merely carrying on what the founding fathers started.

David Bennett
Madison, Ala.