Constitutional horror: Clarence Thomas argues states can establish official religion

[jwirr]

91. The dictionary definition indicates the Church of England as an exampe. A church that by law is

the only official church in England. A church that has the Queen of England as it head. That does not mean in recent years they haven't allowed other churches to exist but that is not what was happening when our ancestors left England. The other churches were persecuted. The dictionary definition is talking about my definition of a state church. We have never had a Church of the USA. And the job of president does not include being the head of a church.

As to the separation of church and state and freedom of religion - I do not know where you learned your history but it is not correct. That is what the rwers want you to believe today. I was a history major in religious history. World religious history.

That clause referring to "establishing religion" is saying that the government (the state) cannot establish a church - like the church of England and most of the other countries in Europe at the time.

So since you say the "established" churches were not shut down when the constitution was ratified - where are those churches today? As far as I know my government has no laws telling me which church I have to belong to.

And the disagreement between the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Quakers was long before the constitution was written. Long before the Revolution. The constitution included a way to keep from further religious wars like the ones that had happened in Europe for centuries. It also freed the people of the USA so that they could belong to any religion they wanted to.