[lawdog]

FYI

Regarding religion, the First Amendment was intended to accomplish three purposes. First, it was intended to prevent the establishment of a national church or religion, or the giving of any religious sect or denomination a preferred status. Second, it was designed to safeguard the right of freedom of conscience in religious beliefs against invasion solely by the national Government. Third, it was so constructed in order to allow the States, unimpeded, to deal with religious establishments and aid to religious institutions as they saw fit.

[kesg]

See my earlier posts in this thread, in which I responsed to many of these points. The most important response is that this entire issue became moot with the passage of the 14th Amendment, which effectively extended the Bill of Rights (including the establishment clause) to the states.