The First Amendment Should Apply to All Churches

An ideal? For whom? It is nowhere in the constitution. It was put into constitutional law by the former Klu Klan Klan member, nativist and anti-Catholic bigot, Hugo Black in 1947. In the last 4 years, the Supremee Court has dropped the Separation metaphor. They have not yet replaced it with anything. So we had Separation from about 1947-98, not before and not since.

Right, now I remember, it was Tommy. You remember, Thomas Jefferson, one of the guys that was there when the Constitution was written. He might have a good idea of the meaning of the First Amendment. In responding to a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association, Tommy wrote a letter in which he stated "...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 and state". Maby your buddy Hugo read that letter too. With all due respect, maybe Tommy is better qualified than you to determin the meaning of the First Amendment. Build the wall high and strong!

Jefferson signed a bill giving land to missionaries so they could build a church and convert native Americans to the Christian faith. Jefferson attended a 4 hour communion serve held in the Treasury department. He also regularly attended full Sunday church services in the House of Representatives (which were held until after the Civil War).

When Jefferson wrote his Danbury letter to the Baptists, Connecticut levied taxes to support the Congregational and Unitarian churches. Baptists were concerned that Jefferson, because of his Unitarian sympathies , was going to make Congregationalism a national religion. The letter was to reassume them that he had no such intention. Politician which he was, he also made it clear the Federal government would not interfer in their faith. The separation metaphor was a one way street: the Federal government would not meddle in the affairs of a church, not the other way around.

Sure it did. Jefferson was out getting votes for his party and stroking the Bapists (whom he had nothing in common with theologically). No way would he ever suggest to them a church had no business being in politics. He would have negated the entire purpose of his letter. The Danbury Baptists wanted to be involved in state affairs. They were envious of the state taxes raised for Unitarians and Congregationalists.

From Affinities and Animosities: Universalists and Unitarians in the Formative Period :

When, in late 1820 and early 1821, Massachusetts went through the exercise of revising its Constitution, the attempt to separate church and state was opposed successfully by the eloquent Daniel Webster, among others. Channing, and a number of other Unitarian ministers, sided with Webster. In an eloquent sermon in December 1820, titled Religion a Social Principle, Channing defended the union of church and state, arguing that religion is not merely a personal matter between God and human beings: ". . .Therefore, Society ought, through its great organ and representative, which is government, as well as by other methods, to pay homage to God, and express its obligation."

Daniel Webster and Unitarians won that debate. The Unitarian and Congregational churches continued to be funded by state taxes for over ten more years.

Thomas Jefferson wrote on June 22, 1822:

"I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its conscience to neither kings nor priests, the genuine doctrine of one God is reviving and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian."

The question arises that if Jefferson's Danbury letter does advocate a separation of church and state as some claim it does, what was Jefferson doing proselytizing for and being in a faith whose most famous minister opposed such a notion?

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