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To: xzins
AN.

Congress shall make no law respecting AN establishment of religion.

It isn't a verbal, it's a noun.

Good catch. Still, it doesn't change the point of my post. To the Founders, "Establishment of religion" meant an official state church. Their intent was to prevent the US from following the custom of the time as in England where membership in the official state church, the Church of England, was required by law under certain circumstances and where legal decisions or an individual's or group's status under the law could be based on church membership.

423 posted on 08/20/2003 4:00:33 PM PDT by Chuckster ("If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable." Thomas More)
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To: Chuckster
I think the sentence means simply: (Congress shall make no law respection an establishment of religion) Congress shall make NO law REGARDING (that deals with the subject of) an (any) establishment (enterprise) of religion.

It would help to get webster's dictionary OF THAT Time and see why this would not be supportable.

Alt Reading A: Congress shall make no law that deals with the subject of any enterprise of religion.

Alt Reading B: Congress shall make no law that deals with an ESTABLISHING of a particular religion (as an official national religion.)

Either way, that isn't what's happened in Alabama.

By the way, I appreciate your open-mindedness.

693 posted on 08/21/2003 5:13:44 AM PDT by xzins (In the Beginning was the Word)
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