“Christianity Shall Forever Be Encouraged”
The Importance of Original Intent
in the Interpretation of the US Constitution
Test your Knowledge Before and After: As you read through this section of this blog article, “Christianity Shall Forever Be Encouraged” look for the answers to the questions stated below. You will see the same questions at the conclusion of your reading.
True or False Answers
11. Our founders believed that freedom of religion was an inalienable right given by God, but government has the right to pass laws against the free exercise of religion.
12. Protecting the rights of the citizens of the United States was the, “original intent” our founders had when writing the 1st amendment to the US Constitution.
Part IV Freedom of Religion—an Inalienable Right Given by God
For us to accurately discuss our founders, “original intent” when they wrote the 1st amendment, we need to start with the very first words. This super important phrase is:
“Congress shall make no law”
Remember, our Constitution was set up to have the legislative members (US Congress) be the law making or Legislative branch of our Federal Government. This power was not granted to the Executive (US President) nor to the Judicial (US Supreme Court Judges). Our President can propose things he wants made into law. However, Congress needs to vote on them and approve or disapprove them.
With that brief lesson in US Governmental Authority, let’s move on to talk about why the creators of the 1st amendment wanted to limit Congress in the passage of any laws regarding freedom of religion.
The first and foremost intent the founders had behind Congress, “shall make NO law” is to protect the rights of the citizens. In the case of the 1st amendment, they wanted to protect the people from the Federal Government (US Congress) establishing a national or state religion for everyone to follow. Back then and is still true today religion encompasses many different beliefs and practices. Even our founders were men of different religious backgrounds.
They were comprised of Baptists, Quakers, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and other religious denominations. They wanted each religious group at that time and all down through our American history to have the freedom to worship God as they so desired. It was so deeply pressed into their beliefs that all people should have the liberty to, “work out” with God their relationship with Him—especially in a group setting.
This freedom of religion right was termed by our founders as an, “inalienable right.” Inalienable meant not alterable—cannot be removed. Implied in these words were the belief God gave this right to all men and no man or government has the right to take it away!
This brings us to a very interesting point to discuss regarding the importance the writers of our Constitution placed upon Christianity and the Word of God to be absolutely essential to the operation of government laws—both in the writing of and their execution.
From here forward we are going to use the term, “Christianity” for the word, “religion” interchangeably. Because our Founding Fathers did this, I believe, it is safe for us to do it as well.
Next, let’s shift into the one thing our founders believed was the most necessary ingredient to keeping the rights of the citizens intact. In other words, we will discuss the most important thing to them that they firmly believed our government could not operate properly without it.
Did you find the correct answers to these questions?
True or False Answers
11. Our founders believed that freedom of religion was an inalienable right given by God, but government has the right to pass laws against the free exercise of religion.
12. Protecting the rights of the citizens of the United States was the, “original intent” our founders had when writing the 1st amendment to the US Constitution.
Whenever you are ready, move on to the next blog article titled, Part V of Christianity Shall Forever Be Encouraged: Self Government—Obeying God’s Word--is the Key to the Operation and Preservation of a Constitutional Republic Form of Government
© 2021 by David Vesely. All rights reserved