[Nathan Zachary]

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

An establishment of religion is a church,synagogue. In otherwords, the government will not interfere with the inner workings of the church. The government runs the country, the church runs the church. That is the definition of separation of church and state, which was connonized by the church way back in 1243 or thereabouts.
The rest, "free exercise thereof" and onward, seems clear to me.

[An Old Man]

Nathan, you need to find another phrase to use. " ... separation of church and state" is no longer an acceptable way to express yourself!

From the article: A unanimous panel of the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Tuesday issued an historic decision declaring that

"the First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state."

Semper Fi

[LexBaird]

An establishment of religion is a church,synagogue. In otherwords, the government will not interfere with the inner workings of the church

No. It means that there will be no established, official, Federally sanctioned religion. No Church of America, as was the case in England with the C of E.

The Religious Wars were not far in the past for the Founders, and they didn't want that sort of thing starting here. In 1776, the Spanish Inquisition was still around. It wasn't abolished until Napoleon took over Spain.