I don't think we should paint an overly rosy picture of religious freedom in America, contrary to the suggestions of Boe's Platform on Dec.5. Until the 1920s the Supreme Court had held that the First Amendment's barring of "an establishment of religion" and the "free exercise thereof" did not apply to the states. (You'll recall that the Bill of Rights sets restricions upon the federal gov't only.) In Mass. the Congregational Church was an official, state-supported church until (as best I recall) the mid-1800s.

In the 1920s and thereafter the Sup Ct gradually held that the 14th Amendment promise of "substantive due process" in effect "vouched in" the personal rights set out in the several amendments of the Bill of Rights. Thus we got the
"flag cases" (holding that students could not be required to join in the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. if to do so offended their religious beliefs) only in the 1940s. Along with the "prayer in the school" cases. Thus, when Barbara was required to read Christian text in NYC public schools in the 1920s or
1930s this was NOT YET a violation of then decided law.

The Constitution is a growing promise. Certain provisions respond to a changing morality. Thus what is "cruel and usual punishment" is a changing element. We no longer execute young teenagers. And in Dela. we no longer flog wife-beaters (as was done until WW II--!).

Still, and simply for the record, there was considerable entanglement between state gov'ts and religious groups for the first 150 years of the Republic. Best --Win Thies