The Separation Of Church And State In The European Union

11 Pages 2742 Words

things changed. “Important leaders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, were opposed to the continuation of the established church of Virginia”(Kleeberg 22). They wanted to create a country in which the individual liberties of choice would be respected by the government. Therefore, the afore-mentioned people decided that for the US to develop in a democratic country of equal citizens, it should separate the church and state as much as possible.
The US Constitution was introduced in the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, and afterwards the states had ratified it. “When delegates from the US met to work on the Constitution, the majority of the states had some form of established religion “(Kleeberg 19). However, in 1791, the Bill of Rights, or the first ten amendments were added to the Constitution, in order to protect some specific individual or states rights which the Constitution had not mentioned. “Thomas Jefferson is credited with the phrase ‘Wall of Separation’ to describe the relationship between church and state in the First Amendment”(Kleeberg 8).
The separation of church and state in the US is mentioned specifically in three places in the Constitution. In Article II, Section 1, Part 8, the US Constitution, providing the oath of office for the president, reads that the president swears of affirms to faithfully execute the office. “By offering a choice of ‘swear’ or ‘affirm’ the writers of the Constitution made it possible for people with religious or other objections to swearing to become president”(Kleeberg 2). Further, in Article VI, Section 3, the Constitution says that the holders of public office will not be required to take a religious test in order to be trusted.
However, the most important Constitutional reference to the separation of church and state is the First Amendment. It says that Congress cannot establish a religion or prohibit anyone from respecting certain ...