blatham wrote:Foxfyre wrote:No it is accurate within the context Jefferson meant it. It was not intended to be used as many anti-religion types use it. It was an affirmation that there would be no state religion and the government wouldn't be interfering with those Baptists or any other religious group to impose its own rules and regulations regarding religion belief.
Well, perhaps not anti-religious but rather for clear separation, on the rationale explicitly advanced by Jefferson.
Is your interpretation then that this was meant to apply strictly to vying Christian sects?
I don't find any evidence that Jefferson restricted freedom of religion to only Christian sects. At the time he was in leadership roles, there really were no religions he dealt with other than Christianity, but there is certainly nothing in the federalist papers or the Constitution to suggest that Christianity was to be the only religion allowed. Unlike some, I give Jefferson a lot of credit for reasoning out these things. He had no problem with prayers or even worship services in government chambers, schools, or anywhere else. He certainly had no problem with religious symbols, emblems, mottos, or slogans, and his own religious faith was certainly not orthodox Christianity.
He was not about to allow the government to order any citizen to believe or not believe anything in matters of religious faith nor offer any reward or exact any consequence for what a person believed in matters of religion. That was his intent with the Wall of Separation. Government could not not establish a state religion and could not interfere with people's religious beliefs; and no people could demand that their religion be favored over all others. Jefferson never intended that people in government not be religious, however, or that there should be no religion in government.
