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| | Justice Joseph Story (RELI 310 / EDUC 385) |
 | | Story concluded that, “without some prohibition of religious tests, a successful sect, in our country, might, by once possessing power, pass test-laws, which would secure to themselves a monopoly of all the offices of trust and profit, under the national government” (1833/1970, ii: 709). |
 | | Story was a firm believer in the beauty and truth of Christianity and understood it as the model for the highest level of morality, writing that “the influence of Christianity [on the human character]… is the most instructive of all speculations, which can employ the intellect of many” (1828, 31). |
 | | Interpreting the “free exercise” clause, Story noted that “the duty of supporting religion, and especially the Christian religion, is very different from the right to force the consciences of other men, or to punish them for worshipping God in the manner, which, they believe, their accountability to him requires” (1833/1970, ii: 727). |
| www.facstaff.bucknell.edu /mazur/courses/reli310/Story.html (5488 words) |
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