Dear Editor:

Your front-page article on President Bush's faith ("Bush's embrace of faith cheered," yesterday) notes that President Bush took time out to acknowledge "Religious Freedom Day," which commemorates the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. The article failed to point out the essence of the Virginia law, however, which is, as the following passage makes clear, against the use of public money for religious purposes:

The Virginia law was passed shortly after distribution of James Madison's 1785 "Memorial and Remonstrance" against the use of tax money "for support of the Christian religion."

The essence of the Constitution's religion commandments is voluntarism in matters of religion. These include "no religious test" (Art. 6, Sec. 3.) and "no law respecting an establishment of religion" (First Amendment). In America, support of religion is to be voluntary. Taxes are not voluntary.

Tax money is for public institutions. It should never be given to any faith-based institution.

On Feb. 28, 1811, President Madison vetoed as unconstitutional a bill passed by Congress that "comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies."

The debate is not new. Shortly after leaving the presidency, Madison, the "Father of the Constitution," wrote: "Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history" ("Detached Memoranda," William and Mary Quarterly, 3:555). Go to a college library and read it.