A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Religion
A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Free thought
We read in Article 6 of the Constitution, that "no religious test
shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust
under the United States." This foundation principle was supplemented
by a provision in the first amendment, which says: "Congress shall
make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof."
What could be clearer than this, that the framers of the Constitution
intended to exclude all religious questions from the charter of
liberty? The Constitution recognizes the beliefs of neither Jew nor
Gentile--neither Christian nor Infidel.
The one special object of the framers of the Constitution was to
establish a free government, and especially did they aim to secure
to the people their individual rights, and no right was so greatly
in demand by the people as the right of a free conscience; the right
to exercise their own judgment upon questions of religion.
"We, the people of the United Slates, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States
of America."
The Declaration of Independence shows us that this question of
liberty was that which the framers of the Constitution were seeking
to establish: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness."
With these words of the Declaration of Independence before us and
the provision in Article 6 of the Constitution, namely, thus, "no
religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any public
trust under the United States," and the further guarantee in the first
amendment, that "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"--it is as clear
as a sunbeam that all laws seeking to enforce a religious observance
of Sunday are unconstitutional, and should not be executed; and where
attempts are made to bind religious observance of the day upon Liberal
people they should resist it as an intolerable despotism.
The different states of the Union have numerous Sunday laws, which
in most cases are a dead letter. Take for instance Massachusetts. In
its history seventy-five cases have been decided mostly in favor of
a rigid enforcement of its Sunday laws. But both laws and decisions
are powerless in controlling the people to observe Sunday as Sabbath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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