Thanks to the separation of church and state clause (yes, Christine, it IS in the Constitution), our government shouldn't be deciding ANYTHING on this issue. If gays want to get married and they can find a religion that allows it, more power to them.
Of course, it is not in the Constitution...
Had you a WSJ understanding of the question, rather than the USAToday version, you might understand that the concept was meant to keep government out of religion, rather than religion out of government.
But, it's never too late to learn...
1. As for the famous separation of church and state,
the phrase appears in no federal document. In fact, at the time of ratification of the Constitution, ten of the thirteen colonies had some provision recognizing Christianity as either the official, or the recommended religion in their state constitutions.
a. From the 1790
Massachusetts Constitution, written by John Adams, includes: [the] good order and preservation of civil government essentially depend(s) upon piety, religion, and morality
by the institution of public worship of God and of the public instruction in piety, religion, and morality
Massachusetts Constitution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
b.
North Carolina Constitution, article 32, 1776: That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of either the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall b e capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil department, within this State.
Constitution of North Carolina, 1776
c. So, the Founders intention was
to be sure that the federal government didnt do the same, and mandate a national religion. And when Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802, it was to reassure them
the federal government could not interfere in their religious observations, i.e., there is a wall of separation between church and state. He wasnt speaking of religion contaminating the government, but of the government contaminating religious observance.
Jefferson's complete letter to the Danbury church;
To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
Seems to me that Jefferson was quite clear that the Seperation of Church and State was in the Constitution.
Madison was afraid that the state would be a bad influence on religion. Jefferson was afraid that religion would be a bad influence on the state. Both were correct.
Not so, Rocks....
You need to understand the times, and I would recommend Kidd's "God of LIberty."
Itinerant preachers such as the Baptists were held in disrepute, as representing a poorer class, and also because they felt they had the right to preach anywhere and anytime.
Further, they were not Anglians, or, as later named, Episcopanians.
From Kidd:
1. In the colony of Virginia, preaching was illegal without a state license.
Baptists were regularly arrested and fined. Quakers were outlawed, as were Catholics.
a. Maryland became a land of exile for a variety of Christian groups since
Virginia enforced conformity to the Church of England.
b. Presbyterian preachers moved into Virginia and became a challenge to Anglican dominance, and grew vindictive toward the dissenting competitors. By the early 1760s, there was a reluctant acceptance- but it
turned on the Baptists.
2. Massachusetts and
Connecticut established the Congregationalist (Puritan) church by law, whereas many of the mid-Atlantic and southern colonies made the Anglican Church their official denomination.
a. In Puritan New England, Anglicans,
Baptists, Quakers, and Catholics
were unwelcome
.Rhode Island became a haven for outcasts and refugees fleeing Puritan justice.
b. Rhode Islandism became synonymous with religious disorder. John Adams diary, December 29, 1765.
3. By the time of the Civil War, Baptists, along with Methodists, would be two of the largest Protestant denominations in America.
4. By any estimation,
most of the early colonies did not embrace religious freedom! Madison and Jefferson were two of the Enlightenment liberals who rallied to the cause of the persecuted Baptists, and with evangelicals and others, supported disestablishment.
a. In 1771, a writer calling himself Timoleon, in Purdie & Dixons Virginia Gazette, argued that dissenters should have protection under English law, and he argued that multiple denominations made Virginia society healthier: Liberty of conscience is the sacred property of every man. To take it away makes one a tyrant.
5. In early 1776, as the colonies began to organize independent government, they began to think of statements of basic liberties, and Madison helped craft the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which
became the impetus for shedding the establishment of a faith, and the tradition of persecution.
a. George Mason has proposed that the Declaration provide full toleration for dissenters, but
Madison would settle for nothing less than free exercise of religion for all.
b. At this time most of
Virginias leaders still wanted an Anglican [to be called the Episcopal Church after independence] establishment along with the free exercise of religion. P.53
c. Jefferson explained that at the time of the revolution, most had become dissenters from the established church but still had to pay contributions to support the pastors of the minority. Thomas Jefferson Autobiography, Ford (ed.), p. 52.
Here, Jefferson was railing against a state-authorized religion which would, in fact, tax all to pay for a particular religious clergy...even though most were 'dissenters'.
The Baptists of Danbury had written to Jefferson to ask for asistance against the state of Connecticut, as far as their religious practices...and the letter to them was to offer assurance ...against the state!
Further, you should be very clear that our Framers were both religious themselves, and firmly believed that religion was necessary in the public arena.