2. Religion and the Continental
Congress
The Continental Congress met for the first time
in 1774 to respond to the increasingly harsh
economic measures imposed by Great Britain.
The second session commencing in 1775 was
devoted to coordinating the revolutionary war
against Great Britain.
3. The Role of Congress
The principle mandate of the Continental
Congress was to deal with pressing military
issues, interstate relationships, national
commerce, foreign diplomacy, and the like.
However, in the course of its work from 1774
to 1789, it also issued a number of acts
touching religion.
4. Continental Congress
In addition to issuing prayers, the Continental
Congress took further steps to cultivate the
moral and religious sentiments of the budding
nation.
During the Revolutionary War against Great
Britain, the Continental Congress passed a
resolution to protect the conscientious
objections of pacifists to participation in war.
5. The 1787 Constitutional
Convention
The United States Constitution is largely silent
on questions of religion and religious freedom.
The
preamble to the Constitution speaks
generically of the “Blessings of Liberty.”
It was commonly assumed at the convention
that questions of religion and of religious
liberty were for the states and the people to
resolve, not the budding federal government.
6. Religion and the Constitution
Numerous proposals were offered. The only
proposal about religion to receive any support was
the proposal that religion not be considered a
condition for federal office.
In the 1787 convention, the almost casual
passage of the prohibition against tests for federal
office was testimony to the commonality of the
assumption that religion and religious liberty were
beyond the pale of federal authority.
7. Ratification and Proposed
Amendments
The Continental Congress approved a draft
Constitution on September 28, 1787, and sent
it to the states for ratification.
In these state ratification debates, the absence
of a bill of rights to the Constitution, particularly
the lack of a religious liberty guarantee, was a
point of considerable controversy.
8. Drafting the First Amendment
Religion Clauses
It was up to the First Congress to cull a
suitable amendment on religious rights and
liberties from all of the proposals.
Neither the House nor the Senate kept an
official record of its proceedings in the first
year.
Many
of the records preserved from this session
came from the inexactly taken and transcribed
notes of newspaper reporter Thomas Lloyd.
9. Original Intent: Interpreting the
Final Text
Congress considered twenty-five separate
drafts of the religion clauses:
10
different ones tendered by the states
10 debated in the House
5 more debated in the Senate
The final draft forged by the joint committee of the
House and Senate.
10. A Thinner Reading
One plausible reading is that the final text of
the religion clauses is a compromise
agreement only on the outer boundaries of
appropriate congressional action on religion.
A thinner reading of the First Amendment
leaves open to later discussion and
development which governmental bodies,
besides Congress, might be bound by its
terms.
11. Thicker Readings
A record of the debates over the religion
clauses can also support more nuanced
interpretations over specific words:
“Congress”
“Shall
make no law”
“Respecting an establishment of religion”
“Or”
“Prohibiting the free exercise thereof”
“Of religion”
