The Lie We Accepted

The First Amendment of our Constitution states not the words “separation of church and state,” but rather the following:

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

How did this become construed to mean “separation of church and state”? By a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, in which he states:

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

This response to the Danbury Baptist Association’s concern that a national religion might be established, has become the cornerstone of legal arguments by secularists and atheists who desire not religious freedom, but the expulsion of Christ from our society.....

Why does that second phrase get ignored-or prohibiting the free exercise thereof?

And they did not forsee the creation of phony "religions" for the purposes of tax fraud, drug use, child sexual abuse...nor did they consider Islam, the free exercise of which will eventually destroy all human freedom.

Islam is no more a religion than the Klan is a Christian sect. But the practicioners get to define "religion", not the law.

What I find interesting from my link in post 4 is that Jefferson had been smeared as an infidel during a political campaign and the smear is being used by Republicans foes today.

Jefferson pressed it into service to counter what he saw as an emerging Federalist plan to exploit the thanksgiving day issue to smear him, once again, as an infidel.

This smear was used by the Federalists. It is being used today by the Godless.

Jefferson also signed a Declaration of Thanksgiving and Prayer as governor of Virginia. However he did not want to do so as President. He had this to say:

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises...Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government. ...But it is only proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious exercises, which the Constitution has directly precluded them from...civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents."

In other words, the government has NO power to direct or prohibit any religious exercise.

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