The Founding Fathers (ugh I hate that term, just say Founders) were pretty damn clear that in fact Hindu Temples and Muslim Mosques and Jewish Synagogues were definitely a welcome part of religious freedom. Very fucking clear.
Warning, I teach this stuff for a living… it’s documents time!
“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
That’s George Washington (President #1) in a letter to a Jewish group in Rhode Island, who had thanked his administration for making them feel welcomed as citizens instead of demeaned for their faith.
What did the Big GW have to say to that? “Yeah, the First Amendment is rad! I’m glad Congress approved it. Fuck bigots! I don’t care what your faith is as long as you’re a good citizen bro.”
(Also my GrUncle was pretty clear that it was not mere toleration of difference he approved of… the man there was talking about Inclusion folks.)
“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, — as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims]…”
From: The Treaty of Tripoli 1796
Written by: John Adams, first VP and second President
Treaties, btw, are part of the “supreme law of the land” along with the Constitution and Congressional law according to Article 6.
“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
Thomas Jefferson, y’know, the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence itself, in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. He’s talking about the First Amendment of course, oh and he was our third President at this point. He was pretty excited about government staying the eff out of people’s faith.
“We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”
Article 2 of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: passed in 1786, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, pushed through the General Assembly by James Madison. Yup, that’s President #4 jumping in on our pro-religious-freedom-for-everyone Train! (Also the guy who drafted most of the text of the Constitution.)
Oh also, from Article 1 of same…
“…our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right…”
Your religious beliefs are a natural right and don’t affect your fitness for public service, actually.
So yeah, the Founding Fathers were pretty fucking clear on this one. EVERYBODY GETS TO HAVE A HOUSE OF WORSHIP HERE IN THE USA AND IT DOES NOT MAKE THEM A LESS WORTHY CITIZEN OR UNFIT FOR PUBLIC SERVICE BECAUSE THEY HAVE DIFFERENT BELIEFS THAN YOU, bro