Originally Posted by
Elspeth
The First Amendment basically states that the US would neither establish nor support a state religion:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"
There are two parts to this statement, both equally important, especially in the context of the late 18th century when it was written. The American colonies were mostly Protestants of varying sects, with a concentration of Catholics (especially in Maryland) and a smattering of Jews, some who had been in North America since the days of New Amsterdam.
European wars of religion between Protestants and Catholics, starting in the 16th century, in addition to the proliferation of Protestant sects, many of whom had been oppressed, targeted, or expelled, made it vital for the budding United States NOT to establish an official church, like the Church of England. However, this in no way indicated that the nation was to be secular. It would have been unthinkable at the time to have had a nation of atheists (or secular humanists). Hence, the second part of the amendment: the new government would not prohibit the free exercise of any religion by its adherents.
So to answer Peter's contention that the nation is secular, the answer is "no", the nation is not secular. The government may not establish a religion nor prevent religious people from practicing their beliefs, but the First Amendment does not create "a secular nation." The government's role is to stay out of the way of religious practice, neither dictating nor preventing it. This way, the government could not exile people, imprison people, or torture and kill them (as had been done in Europe since Martin Luther) based on the existence of a state church or the religion of any given monarch.
Now, does this give freedom from religion? By default, yes it does. Since there is no official state church and the government is out of the membership enforcement business (which is what European government were, in fact, doing), atheists, agnostics, and non church goers could not be coerced by the government into being an Anglican, a Catholic or anything else. This does not mean, however, that the government's job was to enforce atheism--it wasn't. This also does not mean that your God-fearing neighbors can't give you a hard time about not belonging to a church--they can. They just can't deny you the rights guaranteed by your government as a result. So, they cannot prevent you from teaching in a public (state) school, but they can prevent you from teaching in their private religious institution.
As the Bill of Rights is about the rights of the people (and not the rights of the government) it is safe the say that the First Amendment's guidelines on religion were specifically designed to recognize the religious freedoms of the people, not create a government that would enforce secularism.