In a recent thread a poster insists that Christians “despite the fact that the constitution clearly forbids it, continue to put religious symbols and statements onto our money, into the pledge of allegiance, and frequently into town halls, schools, etc.” Actually the Constitution does not forbid any such thing. In fact, the Constitution mentions religion only twice, and both times to defend freedom of religious belief and expression, rather than to forbid it.
The first time, from Article 6, says “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” So nothing there forbids what our poster says it forbids.
The second time, from the first amendment, says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Again nothing there says what our poster claims it says. An establishment of religion means something like the Church of England, which in the 18th century restricted certain legal privileges exclusively to its members. For instance, only members of the Church of England could vote, hold office, attend universities, and serve as lawyers. Moreover, the English government had often imposed on religious freedom by force, particularly in the conquest of Scotland. For this reason, the Church of England was widely disliked by many of the religious refugees who had fled to America over the years. The first amendment was written to ensure that there would never be a Church of the United States. In other words, it guaranteed that the various state governments could continue to uphold their religious viewpoints.
And what were those viewpoints? Varied. Some states, such as Massachusetts had official churches, established, funded, and sanctioned by the state government and supported by tax money. Other states distributed money to churches of various denominations without a preference for any particular one. Other states provided no government funding for any church. The authors of the Constitution approved of all these arrangements, and made no effort to stamp out any of them. As one would expect, different founders had different opinions. Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association expressing personal disapproval of state-funded religion, but he never said that it was unconstitutional.
Nor did the authors of the Constitution have any disapproval of religious activity endorsed by the federal government. The first Congress had a clergyman present to give invocations. And of course they had a habit of saying things like this:
(from George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in 1789.)
So to summarize, nothing in the Constitution forbids religious symbols on money, or the mention of God in the Pledge of Allegiance, or anything of that sort. Nowhere does it say that taxpayer money cannot be used for religious observance. In fact, it says the opposite. It says that Americans have the right to hold what religious beliefs they choose, and express them in the manner that they choose, without having to get the federal government’s permission first, and it makes no exception for public school students, teachers, or government employees.