Religious freedom essential to constitutional governance

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

These starkly simple unambiguous words are the first words of the most important declaration of human rights in history. That these words are first in the First Amendment is a recognition by the Founders of the pre-eminence of the role of religious freedom in the history of the American colonies. Historian Paul Johnson, in his massive "A History of the American People," concluded that "America had been founded primarily for religious purposes, and the Great Awakening had been the original dynamic of the continental movement for independence." Johnson notes that the Mayflower pilgrims came to America "not primarily for gain or even livelihood ... but to create His kingdom on earth."

Notwithstanding the Founders' deep understanding of the religious underpinnings and dimensions of their new country, their understanding of history and personal experience also made them wary of the role of churches in society and in government. While they were afraid of the consequences of the entirely secular French Revolution, they also had reason to fear the consequences of too close an association between the church and the state.

They understood that one of the benefits of the Reformation, and also of the Enlightenment, was the breakup of the political and religious hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. But again, despite the enormous changes wrought by the Reformation, all European governments were intimately connected with a particular church, and in these various countries, members of the state-sponsored church were advantaged while believers in other faiths were systematically persecuted or otherwise disadvantaged.