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[–] CrudOMatic 4 points -4 points (+0|-4) ago 

Instead of listening to an online dipshit that says "it's not in the text, durr", even though it has been explained to them time and time again, I prefer to listen to the man WHO WROTE THE GODDAMNED AMENDMENT, Thomas Jefferson, as he explains in a letter to the Danbury Baptists that the establishment clause builds a wall of separation between church and state.

I'm sure this isn't the first time you've been schooled, nor will it be the last. I don't put up with theocracy horseshit from muslims, I'm not going to put up with it from christians, either.

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[–] bfriend13 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

James Madison wrote the 1st amendment along with the rest of the initial Bill of Rights. And several of the states had state backed churches, since the 1st amendment applied to congress. The fact that it has been perverted to exclude religion from practically all public areas of life is just that, perversion of the founders intent. Hur durr indeed.

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[–] CrudOMatic ago 

Jefferson wanted Bill of Rights for new Constitution

Jefferson was serving as ambassador to France when the Constitutional Convention met in 1787 to replace the Articles of Confederation, but he remained well informed about events in America, largely because of his correspondence with his good friend James Madison. Jefferson recognized that a stronger federal government would make the country more secure economically and militarily, but he feared that a strong central government might become too powerful, restricting citizens’ rights.

He therefore wanted the new Constitution to be accompanied by a written “bill of rights” to guarantee personal liberties, such as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom from standing armies, trial by jury, and habeas corpus. Jefferson’s correspondence with James Madison helped to convince Madison to introduce a bill of rights into the First Congress. After ratification by the requisite number of states, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, went into effect in 1791.

Jefferson drafted a precursor bill to the First Amendent

In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Hugo L. Black and some of his colleagues on the Supreme Court traced the origins of the First Amendment to a bill establishing religious freedom that Jefferson drafted and introduced in the Virginia General Assembly in 1779. The bill was not passed until 1786, when, through the efforts of James Madison, it was adopted as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

The statute, which had three main sections, explained why compulsory religion requirements were wrong, stated that men were free to express their opinions on religion and choose how or if to worship without having their rights as citizens diminished, and explained how the right of freedom of religion was a natural right of mankind.