{"id":11917,"date":"2023-08-16T16:11:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T20:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/au.org\/?page_id=11917"},"modified":"2024-07-07T05:51:40","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T09:51:40","slug":"what-did-the-founding-fathers-really-say","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/what-did-the-founding-fathers-really-say\/","title":{"rendered":"What did the Founding Fathers really say?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What did the Founding Fathers really say?<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What religion were the Founding Fathers? Were they Deists? Were the founders evangelical Christians? The faith of the Founding Fathers is a fascinating and hotly debated subject. But their personal religious beliefs, while interesting, matter far less to the debates in which those beliefs are typically raised than the fact that nearly all the Founders cherished religious freedom and church-state separation.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Constitution is a secular document for a secular government.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Framers of our Constitution incorporated the two pillars of American democracy\u2014religious freedom and church-state separation\u2014into our founding documents, building what Thomas Jefferson revered as a \u201cwall of separation between Church & State.\u201d The Founders got a lot wrong, but church-state separation and religious freedom they got right.<\/p>

The U.S. Constitution was the first government document in history to declare that power comes from people, not gods. Our Constitution was the first not to mention a god or deity. Our Constitution was the first to ban religious tests for public office. In fact, religion is mentioned only twice: in the First Amendment, which bars laws \u201crespecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,\u201d and in Article VI, which prohibits \u201creligious tests\u201d for public office.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Founding Fathers were far from perfect, especially concerning the civil rights of people of color and women. But their secular ideals were ahead of their time. They are groundbreaking contributions, not just to political science and thought, but to all humanity. They are a pillar of our democracy.<\/p>

To illustrate this, here are some writings and quotes from the Founding Fathers on the topic of religion and government.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Thomas Jefferson<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Jefferson was a staunch advocate for religious freedom and an important figure in ensuring church-state separation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREAD JEFFERSON'S QUOTES<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"James\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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James Madison<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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James Madison was a staunch advocate of church-state separation and an important figure in securing religious freedom in Virginia.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREAD MADISON'S QUOTES<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What did the Founding Fathers really say? What religion were the Founding Fathers? Were they Deists? Were the founders evangelical Christians? The faith of the Founding Fathers is a fascinating and hotly debated subject. But their personal religious beliefs, while interesting, matter far less to the debates in which those beliefs are typically raised than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"issue_tax":[],"class_list":["post-11917","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11917\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11917"},{"taxonomy":"issue_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.au.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_tax?post=11917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}