cory Wrote:Well said, but you did leave out the part where Freedom of Religion was in large part about preventing a religion from gaining a strong arm on the American government like the Pope did to Europe for several centuries.
Actually, although the Roman Catholic Church dominated Europe and European politics for 1000+ years, the colonists were more worried about a Church of England situation, since the vast majority had association with the Church of England, and Bjorn does point that out.
Remember, books and information re: history was much less disseminated at the time, because books cost so much to print. They had direct experience with the Church of England, and much less with the Pope and Catholicism, since most of them were Northern Europeans and predominantly Protestant English/Scotch/Irish.
You seek escape from pain. We seek the achievement of happiness. You exist for the sake of avoiding punishment. We exist for the sake of earning rewards. Threats will not make us function; fear is not our incentive. It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live. - John Galt