How the First Amendment Came to Be

James Madison is considered the father of the First Amendment. The Library of Congress gives this background (with boldface added by me):

James Madison took the lead in steering such a bill through the First Federal Congress, which convened in the spring of 1789. The Virginia Ratifying Convention and Madison's constituents, among whom were large numbers of Baptists who wanted freedom of religion secured, expected him to push for a bill of rights. On September 28, 1789, both houses of Congress voted to send twelve amendments to the states. In December 1791, those ratified by the requisite three fourths of the states became the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Religion was addressed in the First Amendment in the following familiar words: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In notes for his June 8, 1789, speech introducing the Bill of Rights, Madison indicated his opposition to a "national" religion. Most Americans agreed that the federal government must not pick out one religion and give it exclusive financial and legal support.

Note that no one was trying to keep religion totally separate from government. The clear focus was to keep the Federal government from selecting one religion over another. In the USA at that time, the desire more specifically was to keep the Federal government from choosing any one Christian denomination over all the others as a national religion.

Learn more at the Library of Congress

Taxes for the Benefit of the Church? Sure, No Problem!

Well, at least that's what George Washington and John Adams thought about the issue, although this opinion was only for State taxes, not Federal. This is not going to happen today, but it points out to what extent the Founding Fathers did NOT think we had to keep religion and government separate.

According to the Library of Congress:

"The country's first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, were firm believers in the importance of religion for republican government. As citizens of Virginia and Massachusetts, both were sympathetic to general religious taxes being paid by the citizens of their respective states to the churches of their choice. However both statesmen would have discouraged such a measure at the national level because of its divisiveness. They confined themselves to promoting religion rhetorically, offering frequent testimonials to its importance in building the moral character of American citizens, that, they believed, undergirded public order and successful popular government."

Learn more at the Library of Congress.

Washington's Prayer

There is some confusion about the particular nature of George Washington's faith, but there is little doubt that he was a faithful man with a strong reliance on God. The Library of Congress' exhibit "Religion and the Federal Government" has this little article about a prayer that Washington penned:

Washington's Prayer
The draft of the circular letter is in the hand of a secretary, although the signature is Washington's. Some have called this concluding paragraph "Washington's Prayer." In it, he asked God to: "dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation."



Read more on the Library of Congress site.

Madison's Notes for the Bill of Rights

The Library of Congress has extensive exhibits on American history. One section discusses how the First Amendment came to be. Here is the part that talks about Madison's notes (Madison is considered the "father" of the First Amendment).

Madison used this outline to guide him in delivering his speech introducing the Bill of Rights into the First Congress on June 8, 1789. Madison proposed an amendment to assuage the anxieties of those who feared that religious freedom would be endangered by the unamended Constitution. According to The Congressional Register Madison, on June 8, moved that "the civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed."

Images of the actual notes are also included:



See more http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel06.html

Is the Constitution an Irreligious Document?

The main body of the U.S. Constitution makes no mention of religion other than stating there can be no religious for Federal office. This fact is used by some to support their point that the Founders intended to keep religion and government totally separate. The Library of Congress has some good background on this issue:

"When the Constitution was submitted to the American public, 'many pious people' complained that the document had slighted God, for it contained 'no recognition of his mercies to us . . . or even of his existence.' The Constitution was reticent about religion for two reasons: first, many delegates were committed federalists, who believed that the power to legislate on religion, if it existed at all, lay within the domain of the state, not the national, governments; second, the delegates believed that it would be a tactical mistake to introduce such a politically controversial issue as religion into the Constitution. The only 'religious clause' in the document--the proscription of religious tests as qualifications for federal office in Article Six--was intended to defuse controversy by disarming potential critics who might claim religious discrimination in eligibility for public office.

"That religion was not otherwise addressed in the Constitution did not make it an 'irreligious' document any more than the Articles of Confederation was an 'irreligious' document. The Constitution dealt with the church precisely as the Articles had, thereby maintaining, at the national level, the religious status quo. In neither document did the people yield any explicit power to act in the field of religion. But the absence of expressed powers did not prevent either the Continental-Confederation Congress or the Congress under the Constitution from sponsoring a program to support general, nonsectarian religion."

Read more on the website of The Library of Congress