The Bible and the First Amendment

The First Amendment informs that, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech." Until 1963, this passage was interpreted as allowing of prayer in public school as well as allowing students to engage in religious activity such as having Bible clubs, celebrate Christmas on school property using religious symbols, and so forth (Barron & Dienes, 2000). However, others have argued that this interpretation was far from what the founding fathers intended and for the past 350 years, government officials and educators have been misinterpreting the First Amendment (Levy, 1989).

Which of these interpretations is correct? One avenue that might be sought in determining an answer to this question is to examine the influence of the Bible in the lives and thoughts of the author of the first amendment and the writers of the American Constitution. The purpose of this paper is to provide such an examination.

First Amendment, The Founding Fathers, and the Bible

The author of the First Amendment was Fisher Aimes, the son of a Col. Henry Aimes, a revolutionary soldier of Hanover County, Virginia. In 1801, Aimes wrote an article called "School Books" in Pladium Magazine. He stated:

We have trouble in the classrooms, we are putting in new text books. Nothing wrong with new books but we are spending more time on them than the Bible; i

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)