Re: seperation of church & state?

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On 9/08/04, anonymous wrote:
> You really can't have total seperation of church and state,
> since every elected official has a belief system, of some sort,
> and brings that with him/her to the office. That belief system
> will affect their judgement in proposing or supporting
> legislation.
>
> This is why I say that the 1st Amendment is only meant to
> prevent the State from establishing a State religion.
>
> On 7/26/04, SFanua, 2nd Yr Law Student- Saratoga Uni Sch of Law
> wrote:
>> Well 1st Amendment to deep for me to cross. However,
>> my suggestions, we should look closely to the Constitution-
>> First Amendment base in the federalism and state
>> establishment with in the context of religion and public
>> life. I have to agree there is no evidence of such delegated
>> power in the constitution (1st Amend.). However, the Bill of
>> Right suggestions that the religion clauses of the 1st
>> Amendment are meant to be taken broadly rather then
>> narrowly. I agree with previous post and I believe it has to
>> come from History of America going back to the founders of
>> America. If we could microscope ply examine each famous
>> founder and look in to their religion believe, their public
>> life and theirs ideology with regards to separation of
>> church and state (e.g. Virginia in 1786 enacted Jefferson’s
>> Bill for the establishment of religions liberty etc. Please
>> read “The First Freedoms" pp 134- 138), we might see the
>> difficult parcel start to come together. However, we should
>> also take into account the argument of accomodationists:
>> simply to bar the establishment of a state church, vs.
>> separationists: believe that the founders intended to
>> separate church and State and the framers: related to the
>> waning of establishment.
>>
>> Thank you
>> SFanua, 2nd Yr Law Student
>>
>> On 7/08/04, anonymous wrote:
>>> I have copies of the Constitution, all the amendments, and
>>> a large collection of the writings of the founding fathers.
>>>
>>> I have read over them many times and can not find the
>>> section where seperation of church and state is defined.
>>>
>>> All that the 1st Amendment says is that Congress shall
>> make
>>> no law abriding the freedom of religion or the practice
>>> thereof. (Although that part was conveniently tossed out
>> in
>>> the early part of the 19th century).
>>>
>>> So, where is said seperation defined/stated/etc?