Chruch/State and Religion in America, History Lesson

taken from a faceBook page...great stuff!

Richard Fouchaux; Okay then, Thomas Paine was a Deist:

"... I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. (Richard Emery Roberts, ed. "Excerpts from The Age of ... See MoreReason". Selected Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Everbody's Vacation Publishing Co., 1945, p. 362)

John Adams, the second U.S. President rejected the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and became a Unitarian (Nettelhorst, http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume2/ushistor.htm). Adams:

"... the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion..." (Charles I. Bevans, ed. Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949. Vol. 11: Philippines-United Arab Republic. Washington D.C.: Department of State Publications, 1974, p. 1072).

Not a Founder, Grant was just stating what everyone knew to be the truth in 1875:

Ulysses S. Grant, in his seventh annual address (State of the Union address) to the Congress, December 7, 1875:

"... As this will be the last annual message which I shall have the honor of transmitting to Congress before my successor is chosen, I will repeat or recapitulate the questions which I deem of vital importance which may be legislated upon and settled at this session:



First. That the States shall be required to afford the opportunity of a good common-school education to every child within their limits.



Second. No sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in any school supported in whole or in part by the State, nation, or by the proceeds of any tax levied upon any community... "

"... Third. Declare church and state forever separate and distinct, but each free within their proper spheres; and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation (emphasis added). (A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Vol. X. New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., 1897, p. 4310)