"The Constitution separates the State from the Church... NOT the church from the State.. "
--Looking at the writings of Madison it looks very clear that it indeed was meant to go both ways.
From the
"Detached Memoranda":
"The establishment of the chaplainship to Congs is a palpable violation of equal rights, as well as of Constitutional pnnciples: The tenets of the chaplains elected by the majority shut the door of worship agst the members whose creeds & consciences forbid a participation in that of the majority."
""Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom? In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative."
"Strongly guarded as is the
separation between Religion & Govt in the Constitution of the United States the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history".
"But besides the danger of a
direct mixture of Religion & civil Government , there is an evil which ought to be guarded agst in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by ecclesiastical corporations."
And in a letter wrote:
"Every new and successful example, therefore, of a
perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters , is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together."
The Virgina Bill of Rights which Madison helped write says that it is the "mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other!"
Liberals think the Virgina Bill of Rights just as unconstitutional as the Declaration of Independence!