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Enlighten me. What is significant about the two proclamations which you mentioned, as opposed to other acts of government officials? I submit to you, Washington's first Inaugural Address. The second paragraph is particularly notable. First, Washington makes his clear that his "first official act" is to recognize the Almighty, to Whom all gratitude and thanks is due, not only for being the Lord of the universe and King of nations, but for the unimaginable blessing which He had just given to the people of the United States. I believe my theory is justified that at least Washington supposed that the people of the United States would find his motives for a national day of Thanksgiving "obvious." I quote:

In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.

Are you claiming that Washington's Inagural Address should be the primary source of the meaning of the U. S. Constitution as regards the relationship of Church to State?

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Originally posted by FredFlash:

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The metaphor is nowhere to be found in the U.S. Constitution.

Neither is the word "non-establishment" but that doesn't stop you from orgainizing your First Amendment dogma around it.

metaphor

n : a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=metaphor

In other words, a metaphor is a word or phrase that expresses an idea. The idea of "non-establishment" is one that was advocated very strongly by the Anti-federalists and is clearly a central part of the US Constitution (it lists what the Feds [I]can[I/] do), whereas the [I]idea[I/] of "separation of church and state" is not to be found in the document, unless it can be established that the "establishment" clause of the First Amendment was doing that very thing (I have argued that it does the opposite).

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As to your claim that "back in those days, most Americans believed a law that made God its object was treason against the Kingdom of Christ," this is not the impression I get from my reading.

Have you read the letter of the Danbury Baptists to President Thomas Jefferson wherein the Baptists commend President Jefferson for not daring to "assume the prerogatives of Jehovah and make laws to govern the kingdom of Christ?"

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Originally posted by FredFlash:
Are you claiming that Washington's Inagural Address should be the primary source of the meaning of the U. S. Constitution as regards the relationship of Church to State?

I never made such a claim. My purpose in posting his address was in relation to the other matters we have been discussing, such as whether Washington understood the purpose of the 1st ammendment, whether he tried to base his actions on his constitutional authority, whether he thought ne needed to find authority for making religious proclamations(the "obvious" question), and finally, the sentiments and beliefs of the people who lived in the United States in Washington's time. See my other post, Posted August 10, 2006 04:33 PM.

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Are you aware that those legally imposed religious creeds were abolished at the time independence was declared because most Americans wanted no human authority over their religious opinions or the manner and methods of expressing those opinions, provided those actions did not manifestly threaten the existance of the State?

In 1787, not one of the States, except South Carolina, maintained an establishment by law of any particular religious belief or manner and method of worship. S. Carolina's establishment was nothing more than the right of a religious society to incorporate if it "subscribed in a book" to five religious articles. I have never figured out what "subscribed in a book" means. S. Carolina abolished its establishment shortly after the U. S. Constitution was adopted.

The one thing that almost all Americans believed in 1787 with regard to church and state was that the government had no business establishing the religious opinions of the people or their manner and methods of exercising those sentiments. However, there were, in 1787, a large number of Americans (especially in New England) who held that the duty to contribute to the financial support of religion was not a matter of conscience.

George Washington, in the mid 1780's endorsed the New England view, then flip-flopped on the issue when it was clear that the sentiments of the people of Virginia were that it was a matter of conscience and the government had no business concerning itself with which religion a man chose to contribute his financial support to. Have you studied the battle for total religious liberty that raged in New England from 1789 until 1833?

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