Four Marks of the Church adjective ("katholikos"), meaning "general", "universal". It is associated with the Greek adverb ("katholou"), meaning "according to the whole", "entirely", or "in general", a combination of the preposition meaning "according to" and the adjective meaning "whole". Applied to the church, the adjective "catholic" means that in the church the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, is proclaimed to all people without excluding any part of the faith or any class or group of people. The adjective can be applied not only to the church as spread throughout the world but also to each local
History of religion in the United States religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" The two parts, known as the "establishment clause" and the "free exercise clause" respectively, form the textual basis for the Supreme Court's interpretations of the "separation of church and state" doctrine. On August 15, 1789 Madison said, "he apprehended the meaning of the words to be, that Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience...” All states disestablished religion by 1833; Massachusetts was the last state. This ended the practice of allocating taxes