[robowombat]

Madison did want to have none of these. Not because he was a crypto-free thinker, as atheists were then called, but because he firmly believed contact between government and religious institutions inevitably led to the corruption and debasement of religion and attempt by government to use religion for secular ends.

[Mariner]

And Jefferson was even more derisive of organized religion.

Gee, the author of the Declaration and the author of the Constitution were in agreement to exclude churches from the operation of government.

[gusty]

And that is why Baptists and other evangelicals at the time were strong supporters of the Jeffersonian Party at the time. They saw how the established church ran roughshod over their rights in Colonial times. It wasn't theoretical to them, it was their reality.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

as atheists were then called, but because he firmly believed contact between government and religious institutions inevitably led to the corruption and debasement of religion and attempt by government to use religion for secular ends.

Well put, and what a crazy thing to think, this Madison. He only had a thousand or so years of history from which to draw his conclusions.

Also, let's not forget that in this neck of the woods, for a considerable period of history, Catholics were the blood enemies of this nation. Guy Fawkes Day was used as "cover" for a lot of radical unrest, especially in Boston, during pre-Revolutionary times. It really wasn't until the latter half of the 19th century, I'd estimate, that Catholics began receiving a seat at the table.

Kennedy was saying what a lot of non-Catholic religious people wanted to hear from him: were he elected President, he wouldn't be taking his orders from Rome. The US wasn't going to become the Holy Roman Empire West.