Thanks. So, fifty years after the Constitution was ratified, somebody expressed the opinion that the Founders meant Christianity even though they didn’t say Christianity? And this guy’s ability to see the penumbra of the Constitution, his ability to interpret the document as a Living Document should matter to me?
My post was simply to invite you and other interested persons to investigate the interesting question that you raised, and to suggest that there is more here than meets the eye. Quick Google search shows that Joseph Story is more of an authority on what the Founders intended that one might suppose from the fact that I cited a more recent edition of his treatise:
Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 – September 10, 1845) was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered today for . . . his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first published in 1833. Dominating the field in the 19th century, this work is one of the chief cornerstones of early American jurisprudence. It is the first comprehensive treatise ever written on the U.S. Constitution, and remains a great source of historical information of the formation and early struggles to define the American republic.
Cheers!