[GeorgiaYankee]

The early American Christian settlers could never have dreamed that in this atmosphere of freedom, houses of worship would be fruitful and multiply.

This statement is amazingly illogical. The early American Christian settlers came here FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION. Why wouldn't they expect houses of worship to be fuitful and multiply?
How does the author know what these people could or could not have dreamed of? Is he a time-traveler AND a mind-reader?

[Publius]

The early American Christian settlers came here FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION. Why wouldn't they expect houses of worship to be fuitful and multiply?

The early Christian settlers, specifically those of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, did in fact come here to worship at they pleased. Back home in England, the Pilgrims/Puritans could be brought before the Star Chamber and then be jailed or disfigured. The Pilgrims' first stop after England was the Netherlands, where they could also worship as they pleased, but where they would also lose their English identity, which was quite precious to them.

Certainly they wanted houses of worship to be fruitful and multiply, but only those houses of worship that represented their specific sect. All others were banned. Anglicans, Catholics and other sects labeled by the British government as "Dissenters" were not welcome in Boston. The colony was to be an exclusive polity where the law of God, as stated in the Bible, was the law of the state. Church and state were one, a Puritan theocracy.

The early Christian settlers left behind a lot of sermons and other things in print, so we know what they were thinking in great detail. No one needs to be a mind reader to find out what they were thinking. A little research is enough.

[tpaine]

"Religion has been an important cultural and political force since before the inception of the American republic.
Indeed, among the American settlers were the religiously persecuted who fled their native lands in search of the right to worship, free from the interfering hands of the state."

"The early American Christian settlers could never have dreamed that in this atmosphere of freedom, houses of worship would be fruitful and multiply. ---
--- it is clear that tens of millions of people are committed to some kind of religious observance and that the United States remains a profoundly religious society."

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GeorgiaYankee wrote:

This statement is amazingly illogical. The early American Christian settlers came here FOR FREEDOM OF RELIGION. Why wouldn't they expect houses of worship to be fuitful and multiply?

How does the author know what these people could or could not have dreamed of? Is he a time-traveler AND a mind-reader?

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No, he's a student of history, and the religious history of that day claimed that the State had to force a religion on the people to ensure piety.
Many of the colonial states had such religions.

We can see now that the opposite is true.

Political freedom is GOOD for religious freedom. The more individual freedom we have, the more pious some people can become..

Unfortunately, there is still a subset of the pious, even today, -- who reject the teachings of history, and want to re-institute State support for churches.