[xzins]

It matters because the subject has been treated by the media as if it were part of the constitution. Many are suprised to learn that the US Constitution does not contain the words "separation of Church and State." Nor did the Articles of Confederation.

There is no similarity at all with burial of the dead.

[MuddyWaters2006]

"It matters because the subject has been treated by the media as if it were part of the constitution."

The U. S. Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the United States for themselves and their posterity. They have declared it the supreme law of the land. They have made it a limited government. They have defined its authority. They have restrained it to the exercise of certain powers enumerated in the document, and reserved all others to the states or to the people." They granted the federal government no power over religion.

No civil power over religion, or as James Madison put it the exemption of religion from the cognizance of the civil magistrate, came to be known as "the separation of church and state" long before it first appeared in a Supreme Court Opinion. It was a short eloquent way of referring to the legal concept and had been adopted by many of the American people.

If you don't like the name affixed to the concept, why don't you come up with a better one?