Welcome to Call to Decision 

 American Minute with Bill Federer

 September 25

 "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,
 or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

 Thus began the first of the Ten Amendments, or Bill of Rights, which
 were approved SEPTEMBER 25, 1789.

 George Mason, known as "The Father of the Bill of Rights," wrote the
 Virginia Declaration of Rights from which Jefferson drew to write the
 Declaration of Independence.

 George Mason was one of 55 founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution,
 but was also one of sixteen who refused to sign it because it did not
 abolish slavery and did not limit the power of the Federal Government.


 George Mason joined with Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams to prevent
 the Constitution from being ratified, as the abuses of King George
 III's concentrated power were still fresh.

 It was largely through George Mason's insistence that in the first
 session of Congress ten limitations or amendments were put on the new
 Federal Government.

 George Mason suggested the wording of the First Amendment be:

 "All men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free
 exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and
 that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored
 or established by law in preference to others."