by Gene Garman
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (First Amendment to the Constitution for the United States of America, December 15, 1791). I. The Establishment Clause. 1. An establishment of "religion." (1). The word "religion" is unmodified. A. There are no words in the establishment clause which modify the word "religion"; for example, it does not say of "a" religion, of "a state" religion, of "a national" religion, or of "an official" religion. B. Strict constructionists of the Constitution accept the wording of the establishment clause as written. History revisionists distort the establishment clause by asserting that its drafters originally intended (but obviously forgot) to include the above modifications. (2). The word "religion" is used in a broad sense. A. Proof of the above statement is in the word " thereof " in the free exercise clause which can be logically understood only by using a broad definition of the word "religion." The word "religion" cannot mean anything other than what the word "thereof " means in the free exercise clause. B. Strict constructionists accept the wording of the free exercise clause as written. History revisionists distort the meaning of the religion clauses by asserting that the word "thereof" is to be understood by a broad definition of religion while the word "religion" in the establishment clause is to be understood in a narrow sense. II. The Free Exercise Clause. 1. Congress shall make no law "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (of "religion"). The word "thereof" requires the same meaning as that to which it refers (English Grammar 101). (1). It is laughable to assert that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of a state, a national, or an official religion. (2). Strict constructionists accept the obvious meaning of "thereof" as referring to "religion." History revisionists make the ridiculous claim that the word "thereof" refers generally to "religion" while the establishment clause means specifically "a state religion." 2. Religion is not above the law. (1). The word "prohibiting" means completely forbidding. Congress cannot completely forbid the "exercise" of religion. (2). Congress can make laws restricting activities of any kind. Actions, regardless of religious opinion, may be restricted. Actions of any kind, even religious, may be restricted. Actions of any kind, even religious, are subject to the laws of the land. Everyone is free to exercise religion within the limits of the laws of the land. (3). James Madison understood English. He knew the difference between "prohibiting" and "restricting." If he had meant to say "restricting," it is what he would have written. Do you know why I am sure Madison did not mean "restricting"? He did not write "restricting"! A. Polygamy is unconstitutional regardless of religious opinion (Reynolds v. U.S., 1879). Peyote smoking or chewing is unconstitutional regardless of religious opinion (Smith v. Employment Division of Oregon, 1990). B. Strict constructionists accept the wording of the religion clauses as written. History revisionists assert that the establishment clause means one thing while the free exercise clause means another, that the word "prohibiting" means "restricting," and that actions in the name of "religion" are above the law (anarchy).
III. The No Religious Test Clause.
1. "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" (Constitution, Art. 6, Sec. 3.). How much more clearly could the Constitution have stated the principle of separation between religion and government? "No religious test" means no religious test. 2. Before the First Amendment was even drafted, the Founding Fathers specifically wrote into the founding document of the United States of America the position of the majority of the American people regarding separation between religion and government. The "no religious test" principle was approved by a majority of the Founding Fathers and by a majority of the state legislators. There has always been a minority opinion in America which wants religion favored and imposed by law and government, but that opinion is not the proposition which prevailed in 1787 or in 1788 (when the Constitution was approved by the state legislatures). 3. In 1787, the Constitution for the United States of America, as drafted by the Founding Fathers, made only one mention of religion: "no religious test shall ever be required." In 1789 members of the First Congress further stipulated that "no law" could be made even "respecting an establishment of religion." In 1797 members of the United States Senate read and ratified (and John Adams signed) a treaty with Tripoli which, in article 11, states the issue as clearly as words can put it: "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion." 4. Finally, in regard to the minority opinion and in case there is any further question, James Madison ("Father of the Constitution"), in his undated essay "Monopolies," makes the point again: "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." Let there be no doubt that it was "the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies" which concerned Madison. Two hundred years later that "danger" still exists; yet, America still stands as monument to the wisdom of the majority that the principle of separation between religion and government is best for religion and best for the state. Summary: Religion and the promotion of religious opinion is none of the government's business. Congress can make "no law" respecting an establishment of it. In America, religion is to be freely accepted, not imposed by law. Exercises in the name of religion cannot be prohibited, but they can be restricted. In America, civil law prevails, not ecclesiastical law or religious opinion. Religion is a matter of opinion. In contrast to history revisionists, strict constructionists are persuaded that the drafters of the religion clauses were consistent, understood proper grammar, wrote exactly what they meant, and meant exactly what they wrote. Your homework assignment, in order to provide you with a broad understanding from some of the best writers on the issue, is to read Church, State, and Freedom by Leo Pfeffer; The Establishment Clause by Leonard W. Levi; Original Intent by Derek H. Davis; Religion, the State & the Schools by John M. Swomley, Jr.; Public Schools and the Public Good by Robert S. Alley; and, of course, America's Real Religion by Gene Garman. Copyright 1997, 1999 Gene Garman