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The Williamsburg Charter is a document that was drafted in 1986 by several Americans, each a member of a prominent religious community and/or non-religious philosophy in the United States.[ citation needed ] The Charter was signed by 100 nationally prominent figures on June 22, 1988, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Virginia's call for a Bill of Rights.[ citation needed ] Among the signers were Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter; the late Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court William Rehnquist; the late activist Coretta Scott King (wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.) and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. [1] The lead drafter was Os Guinness.[ according to whom? ][ citation needed ]
The document affirms the need for a lively and reasoned debate on the role of religion in the public life of the United States.[ editorializing ][ citation needed ] Its primary focus is on the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause, contained within the first amendment of the United States Constitution,[ citation needed ] and the goal of the writers is to "affirm both their cardinal assumptions and the reasons for their crucial national importance". [2] [ better source needed ] The writers believe that the problems surrounding the religion clauses can only be solved by first understanding the nature of the clauses.[ according to whom? ] Among the points raised in the charter is that non-religious hostility towards religion is just as dangerous to a democracy as religious hostility towards non-religion or to other religions.[ original research? ][ citation needed ]