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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank
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To: E who wrote (8832)3/16/2001 11:36:22 AM
From: Win Smith  Read Replies (1) of 82486
 
E, lest anyone argue that religious excess is somehow unrelated and irrelevant to political arguments, I will again note this bit from last Sunday's paper. We could hope that the people arguing for more government support of religion weren't the same people arguing "original intent" in Constitutional matters. That would be a vain hope, though, as Scalia at least fashions himself an original intent type, except not particularly on the religion issue.

How did Madison acquire this understanding of rights? In large part, through his
powerful commitment to freedom of conscience. For Madison, as for Thomas
Jefferson, the horrific religious persecutions of the 16th and 17th centuries were the
equivalent of what the history of racial slavery and discrimination has been for us: the
most compelling example of the systematic denial of fundamental rights to unpopular
minorities. Their radical solution to the religion problem was to recognize that every
individual retains a sovereign right to accept or reject the claims of religion, entirely
free of the coercive authority of the state or community.

Today, efforts are repeatedly made to suggest that Madison and Jefferson were not
quite the ardent advocates of separating church and state that their strongest
statements on the subject suggest. In fact, the more Madison thought about the
subject, the more militant his thinking grew. nytimes.com
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