Quoted from:
http://ratify.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/details_explanation.php?link=122&const=08_amd_01
George Washington wrote to a Jewish synagogue in 1790, toleration implied the unacceptable premise that “it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their natural rights.”
Baptists played a critical role in the early development of the separation of church and state in America.
(As explained in The Words We Live By by Linda Monk: “… In his journal for May 1771, John Williams of Virginia described how a posse including an Anglican priest and a county sheriff beat an unlicensed Baptist preacher, Brother Waller, while he was leading worship.
Brother Waller informed us...[that] about two weeks ago on the Sabbath day down in Caroline County he introduced the worship of God by singing.... While he was singing, the parson of the parish would keep running the end of his horsewhip in [Waller’s] mouth, laying his whip across the hymn book, etc. When done singing, [Waller] proceeded to prayer. In it he was violently jerked off of the stage, [they] caught him by the back part of the neck, beat his head against the ground, sometimes up, sometimes down. They carried him through a gate that stood some considerable distance, where [the sheriff] gave him...twenty lashes with his horse whip.... Then Brother Waller was released, went back singing praise to God, mounted the stage, and preached with a great deal of liberty.”)
After Thomas Jefferson was elected president, the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut wrote him a letter protesting the fact that in their state “religion is considered as the first object of legislation.”
Jefferson replied in 1802 that the First Amendment prohibited the U.S. Congress from taking such action, “thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”
The Supreme Court quoted Jefferson’s metaphor … in Everson v. Board of Education(1947.)
(“…religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” Those are Jefferson own words and they were written to a BAPTIST congregation.)
In that case, the Court for the first time incorporated the Establishment Clause to apply to the states ... The Court outlined the prohibitions of the Establishment Clause as follows:
“Neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force...a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will, or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.”
Although the Supreme Court in Everson cited Jefferson’s phrase of “a wall of separation between church and state,” those words do not actually appear in the First Amendment. However, neither does the Constitution refer to the terms “God,” “Creator,” or “Divine Providence,”
Justice Robert H. Jackson’s majority opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) made clear that … the Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of unpopular minorities:
“The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.”
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
Here's a link to the constitution.
http://ratify.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/constitution.pdf
Here's what the 1st amendment actually says:
"
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances"
Isn't the exclusion of a business owned by a religious establishment (which a church is) from compliance with laws businesses not owned by a religious establishment a law "respecting an establishment of religion"? The first amendment says very clearly that the government can not show respect to "an establishment religious" (which a church is.)
And as far as freedom OF not FROM religion goes it says Congress can't pass a law "prohibiting the free exercise thereof." It's true, the 1st amendment does not contain the phrase "freedom from religion" but it also does not contain the phrase "freedom of religion"
The 1st amendment tells the government it can't pass laws supporting or promoting; it can't pass laws limiting or prohibiting; in short it can't do anything that even acknowledging the existence of religion or "an establishment of religion". What the first amendment does is to tell the government it must be blind to the existence of religion and to the exercise thereof. It puts religion specifically in the list of things covered by the 10th amendment:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Everything having to do with religion and "an establishment of religion" is reserved to the people and the government is prohibited from doing or saying anything about it ... Pro or Con.
