[mrs tiggywinkle]

Thanks for posting this...be back later to read the full article.

[So Cal Rocket]

Obviously, the words "separation," "church," or "state" are not found in the First Amendment; furthermore, that phrase appears in no founding document.

Ahhhh... but look at a document where these words CAN be found:

The Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
(The Former Soviet Union)
Adopted October 7, 1977

Article 52 [Religion]
(1) Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda. Incitement of hostility or hatred on religious grounds is prohibited.
(2) In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church.

[INVAR]

Excellent! Thank you!

When you read the plain words of the Constitution and take Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists in proper context - it becomes clear that Jefferson understood the entire meaning and intent of the 1st Amendment : 'Congress shall make NO LAW respecting an establishment of religion...." due to the precise fact that ONLY Congress and the legislature have the power to MAKE LAW.

This is because the legislatures are BEHOLDEN to you and I, The People. If they vote outside of the values of their constituencies, they can be voted out and new representatives can be installed to safeguard our liberties.

It is why Adams said: ""Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other"

The Judiciary has no such accountability to We the People. They were to rule upon matters of WRITTEN LAW passed by the legislatures, not to MAKE LAW by "intepreting" what they think it should or want it to mean.

But Judicial Activism is now considered law, mainly due to the fact that most of us are ignorant of what the plain words written on parchement actually say - let alone what they mean.

Like everything else - We the People have left the running of this nation to the "professionals", and have not heeded our Founder's warnings about the nature of power and government.

[Jaded]

Thanks, great article.

[OXENinFLA]

Read later bump

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[RobbyS]

Such liberty degenerates into license and throws into question the very possibility of the rule of law itself.

except it is founded solely one the ability of the power to coerce.

[rwfromkansas]

The concept is actually anti-Catholic in origin.

Hugo Black was an anti-Catholic KKK member and a big proponent of separationism, for example.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg.

If you read writings of early separationists, the feeling of the need for separation was directed against Catholics, not Protestants or anybody else.

[I'm ALL Right!]

bump

[Tailgunner Joe]

bttt

[austingirl]

We have freedom of religion not freedom from religion as the ACLU would have us believe.

[nightdriver]

This intent was well understood, as evidenced by court rulings after the First Amendment. For example, a 1799 court declared:

"By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing."

I wish we had a case number for this ruling. It parallels the 1892 NYSSC ruling that islam (among other foreign religions) are illegal in America.

[ewzell]

I know this is a very old post, however, it has a timeless message that I, for one, am thankful to hear. I knew the origin of the phrase was a letter of President Jefferson, however, I did not know the content of the letter or the situation causing it’s writing.

Thank you for the information.

[AaronWE]

Your entire argument completely falls apart if you intend to rely on the quotes from the Jefferson letter and the congressional record of debate surrounding the 1st Amendment . Reading the text it is clear that the founders intended there to be no establishment of a state religion of any one denomination over another. Further they state that people should be free to worship any “orthodox religion” of their choosing and that the state could not adopt or favor one over the other due to the establishment clause in the constitution. This clearly refutes the notion that we can consider America a Christian nation any more than we can consider it a Jewish nation or a Hindu nation or a Muslim nation. America is all of these or none of these because the constitution grants each person the right to practice their own religion or none at all. Nowhere in the Constitution is Christianity, or even God mentioned. The framers stated many times in their debates that they were relying on the laws of man and nature to form the principles upon which our government would be based.