I have lots to say on this topic, particularly concerning some of the historical misrepresentations I've seen, but after staying up until 3:30 am reading every single post in the thread I just don't have the energy.
There are a couple of points I'd like to make before I go to bed to return tomorrow.
AmusedOne, I just have to comment on your repetitive use of the quote from the Treaty of Tripoli. I've seen that quote used often by groups trying to infer that John Adams was not a religious man and that religion was not important to the founding fathers.
The pirates of the Barbary coast and of Tripoli (in what is now called Libya) in
particular were destroying U.S. shipping and holding as prisoners U.S. seamen in the
1790s. It was a serious problem and a series of negotiators were sent to try to put together
an agreement to improve it. On 4 November 1796, near the end of George Washington's second term, a treaty with the"Bey and People of Tripoli" was signed, promising cash and other considerations to
Tripoli in exchange for peace.
The treaty was not written by either of the founding fathers, George Washington or John Adams. It was written by a diplomat, Joel Barlow, who was leading the negotiations with the Muslim pirates. Barlow was considered to be a deist, though he had served as a military chaplin at one time.
You and others always leave out a portion of the treaty that shows it's real purpose, which was not to serve as a basis for our government being non-Christian, but to appease the Muslims who viewed us as a nation of infidels who would want to overthrow them in order to force our Christianity upon them.
"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 tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
Barlow just needed to make it very clear to the Muslims of Tripoli that they need not fear a religious war from the U.S. Adams understood that, as did the members of the Senate.
If you want to quote founding father John Adams, try this one:
"The highest story of the American Revolution is this: it connected in one indissoluble
bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity".
President John Adams
Or this one:
"We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions
unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
John Adams, address to the militia of massachusetts, 1798
Just one other thing, I would never try to predict what the US Supreme Court might do with a case, but it would seem awfully hypocritical of them to let the ruling of the lower court stand when the US Supreme Court's call to order reads:
"Oyez, Oyez, Oyez All persons having business before the honorable, the Supreme
Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention,
for the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court."