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To: Natural Law
The separation was not instituted to limit Catholicism, it was limited to limit the Calvinists who dominated the New England states and had a record of intemperance and intolerance of the Anglicans who were the predominant majorities in the southern colonies.

Cease with the partisan jockeying. State Churches were disestablished to remove governmental authority over religious convictions. All of them. This provided freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, phrases connoting basic rights that would be more familiar to Anglican Virginians of the Revolutionary era than to any Congregationalist, Calvinist, Catholic or what have you from elsewhere. It was, after all, penned into their State Constitution under the Articles Of Confederation by Founder George Mason.

10 posted on 10/10/2010 5:34:27 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: RegulatorCountry
"State Churches were disestablished to remove governmental authority over religious convictions."

The southern colonies insisted upon the religious freedom clause to ensure that the New England Congregationalists did not impose a national religion. The Federalist Papers 2, 10 and 84 document this debate. The resulting establishment clause only applied to the federal government, but left the states free to establish or retain their own state religions. Some states continued to have a state religion for a considerable period of time.

Massachusetts remained officially Congregationalist until 1780, Virginia Church of England until 1786, Georgia Church of England until 1789, New Hampshire Congregationalist until 1790, and remained Connecticut officially Congregationalist until 1818.

15 posted on 10/10/2010 6:09:15 PM PDT by Natural Law (A lie is a known untruth expressed as truth. A liar is the one who tells it.)
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