RELIGION MEANS RELIGION

Q: It is our understanding that the "establishment" clause of the First Amendment's two religion clauses means "a single official denomination." What primary source documents do you use to assert that it means "religion"? Rod and Mark

A: In the essay "Religion Clauses 101," I demonstrated that the two religion clauses are grammatically linked--that neither the specific wording nor the grammatical structure (English 101) of the religion clauses supports two meanings. It is dishonest to assert that the establishment clause means one thing and the free exercise clause means another. The free exercise clause is not independent in terms of meaning--the word thereof grammatically links the free exercise clause back to the establishment clause. The meaning of the word thereof must be understood in terms of whatever is meant in the establishment clause. Both clauses refer to "religion"--Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of RELIGION or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (of it).

1. Contemporaries:

There are no two more contemporary, distinguished, or authoritative historians in terms of understanding the religion clauses than James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Madison was a cochairman of the conference committee which in September 1789 drafted the religion clauses and Jefferson became Secretary of State in February 1790. The First Amendment was ratified by the states in December 1791.

2. Primary source documents:

(1). In 1785 Madison wrote the "Remonstrance" wherein he protested the "legal establishment of Christianity," the legal establishment of "religion," and the authority of the Virginia legislature to make a law providing tax money for teachers of the Christian religion--which he referred to as a "proposed establishment." In 1811 President Madison vetoed two bills (neither of which had anything to do with "a single official denomination") as violating the "establishment" clause.

(2). In 1786 the Virginia legislature adopted Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom which originated with Jefferson and which rejected the idea of establishing "religion" by law--not just the Episcopalians, not just Christianity, but "religion." Neither the word church nor the word Christianity is used even one time in the Virginia Statute (or the Constitution). In an 1808 letter to Samuel Miller, Jefferson defined the religion clauses: "no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion."

(3). In 1789 Congress rejected wording which would have placed the word national before "religion." On June 8, 1789, the proposed House version read: "nor shall any national religion be established." A House committee of ten, which included Madison, was selected to review the proposal--it deleted the word national. On August 15 (Annals of Congress, I:757-759) the committee's proposal was presented: "no religion shall be established by law." Then the House, sitting as a Committee of the Whole, changed the wording: "Congress shall make no laws touching religion." On August 20 the House changed the wording again: "Congress shall make no law establishing religion." On September 3 the Senate took up consideration of the House proposal and in one day rejected three motions for rewording: Congress shall make no law "establishing one religious sect," "establishing any religious sect," and "establishing any particular denomination" (Journal of the First Session of the Senate of the United States, p.70). The Senate then accepted the House version: "Congress shall make no law establishing religion." On September 9 the Senate changed its mind and adopted the following: "Congress shall make no law establishing articles of faith or a mode of worship" (SJ, p. 77). A joint Senate-House conference committee (Madison was cochairman) agreed to a final wording which was approved by the House on September 24 and Senate on September 25: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

In other words, Rod and Mark, your assertion that the historical record of the development of the establishment clause provides evidence which proves that the clause means "a single official denominaton" is based on fiction, not fact. Madison and Jefferson are right. Your sources, like political scientist Robert Cord and high school math teacher David Barton, are wrong. Proposals for the establishment clause to refer simply to a "national" religion or to some version of "a single official denomination" were specifically rejected by the majority in the First Congress. It is the broad meaning of the word religion which is used in the establishment clause and which dictates the meaning of the word thereof in the free exercise clause. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion means: of "religion." Madison's "Remonstrance" and Jefferson's "Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom" are printed in the book America's Real Religion.