Handout 1B: RELIGION & THE CONSTITUTION

First Amendment: Religion

Explain the meaning of the words or phrases at the left

Congress ____________________________________

shall make no law... ____________________________________

respecting an establishment of religion ____________________________________

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… ____________________________________

The First Amendment contains two clauses concerning religion: (1) the establishment clause and (2) the free exercise clause. Prior to the Constitution (1787) and the First Amendment (1791), some colonies, such as the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had no religious tolerance. The Massachusetts Colony had laws that would have violated the First Amendment. Which clause-- (1) establishment or (2) free exercise--would have been violated if the First Amendment had existed in the 1600’s in Massachusetts?

____ 1. Colonists paid taxes to support the church.

____ 2. Only members of the official church could vote for government officials.

____ 3. Christmas was banned in the Massachusetts Colony.

____ 4. Anyone who broke a church law was tried in a government court.

____ 5. Roger Williams was expelled from the Massachusetts Colony for saying that people should worship God as they wish.

____ 6. Anne Hutchinson was banned from the Massachusetts Colony in 1637 for claiming God revealed his word directly to her.

____ 7. Mary Dyer, a Quaker, was hanged in 1656 because she returned to Massachusetts after she had been banned for her religious beliefs.

The conditions above (1-7) all took place in the 1600’s. Discuss the need for the First Amendment as a result of these conditions.