Re the 1780 provision in Mass.’s Constitution. It helps to keep in mind religious disputes within Christendom that the FFs were trying to solve. The FFs thought they could solve it by supporting “religion in general,” and in some instances a generic form of “Protestant Christianity.” The problem is they couldn’t decide, just as we can’t decide, what is true “religion” or “Christianity.” And they certainly didn’t want government deciding for us.
The Deism thing of the FFs is way overblown. Scholars need to pay more attention to the unitarian heresies and whether “unitarian Christianity” is an authentic form of Protestant Christianity. That issue drove both Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance in 1780s VA AND Mass.’s disestablishment in 1833. It’s why I send so much time with it.
The key Founders (J. Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, probably Madison, Washington) were not “Deists” but unitarian heretics who presented their creed as “rational Christianity.”
