Posted on 01/10/2009 12:12:11 PM PST by BuddhaBrown
What's behind Jefferson's "wall"?
Godless liberals often misapply the “wall” quote from Thomas Jefferson to further the goal of eliminating God from the public square. This is a position based in ignorance. Some even think the wall quote is part of the First Amendment’s establishment clause which merely reads:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”
It should be noted that the noble collection of Framers who hammered out the First Amendment in the summer of 1789 did NOT include Jefferson who was in France. And neither their discussions nor the finished product contained any reference to walls or to the “separation of church and state”.
Jefferson was a man of faith who wisely distrusted religious organizations. He also distrusted the federal government. His famous quote about the “wall” comes from a letter he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association after receiving their letter expressing concern the feds might seek involvement in their affairs.
They were concerned that the establishment clause was part of a legislated amendment and thus possibly considered a right granted by government. They desired assurance that freedom of religion be considered an “unalienable” right endowed by the Creator as mentioned by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. He assured them it was protected by government, not created by it or subject to regulation by it.
Misguided folks quote the wall line while arguing against such innocuous activities as prayers being invoked at graduation ceremonies. These people forget Jefferson’s famous letter was written more than a decade after the First Amendment and it closes with then PRESIDENT Jefferson stating “I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessings of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.”
Oooops!!! How did that slip through the imagined wall on the very day it was supposedly built and by the very man who supposedly built it?
There existed then state level “intermeddlings” with religion which were not promoted by Jefferson but also not prohibited by the U.S. constitution. As he said, “I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the...establishment [clause]..., but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority.”
Note the typical Jeffersonian distrust at the end there, but NOT prohibition of any state government’s involvement with religious activity. The First Amendment only refers to what “Congress” can NOT do. It protects our individual, God-given right to religious expression. It does not empower the Supreme Court to restrict our expressions of faith in public or even in public office!
Jefferson was also a political prophet predicting the condition we find ourselves in today. His (and other Founders’) fear of “tyranny” and “despotism” coming from the judicial branch are now reality despite their efforts to make it the weakest branch. The Supreme Court now lords over the legislative and executive branches, the states and individuals in ways never intended by Jefferson who said:
“The opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what are not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but the legislature and executive also in their spheres, would make the judiciary a despotic branch.”
“To consider the [SC] judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy...The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal.”
“The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in...the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body...working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States.”
Fortunately, Lincoln did not allow one of the worst usurpations of power when the supremes ruled in Dred Scott (1857) that “a man of African descent, whether a slave or not, was not and could not be a citizen of a state of the United States.” Honest Abe ignored the ruling which violated God’s “natural law” and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. And Congress passed the 13th amendment despite the supreme morons.
And UNfortunately, the court’s theft of power was complete by the time Chief Justice Rehnquist, in a disgusted dissenting opinion (Jaffree), reminisced about our fist President George. Washington, on the very day the First Amendment passed Congress and at their behest, proclaimed a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.” Wrote Rehnquist regarding that event: “History must judge whether it was the Father of our country in 1789, or...the Court...which has strayed from the meaning of the Establishment Clause.”
Those still holding a wrong-headed view of what Jefferson meant by the “wall”, consider whether such a man would have prayed at both his inaugurations? Or approved tax dollars for Christian missionaries sent to the Indians?
“The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time...And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are to be violated but with His wrath?” -Jefferson
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see 15 above
Oops.
LOL!! No problema, mi amigo...
When Jefferson was elected President, an old lady in a town in New England was convinced he would soon confiscate all the Bibles, so she went to the only Republican she knew in her town and asked him to hide her Bible for her. He tried to tell her that she had nothing to worry about but she wouldn’t listen. Finally he pointed out that if they confiscated all the Bibles, her Bible wouldn’t be safe in his house either. Her reply was that they’d never think of looking for a Bible in the house of a Republican.
The answer is very clear. Jefferson and the founding fathers created a bill of negative right limiting government. They specifically prohibited the government from acting with respect to religion. Regardless of the left’s propaganda, religious persons and organizations are not similarly prohibited from acting with respect to government. There is NO reciprocity.
That’s a fun anecdote.
Some things never change, I guess. Apparently the politics of fear preceded Jefferson’s co-founding of the Democrat-Republican party.
On the other hand some things completely change over time. Folks in the North East concerned about the bible? And concerns about Republicans not respecting God? Almost makes a fella believe in evolution.
“The answer is very clear....”
Good points all.
I mostly was attempting to point out that Tom, and his famous “wall” quote, should NEVER be used as justification for silly liberal arguments against any sort of respect for or reference to God in the public square.
And that the federal Bill of Rights did not even prohibit actual government / religion “intermeddling” at lower levels including state law.
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