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Speaker Johnson: Separation of church, state ‘a misnomer’
The Hill ^ | 11/14/23 | Lauren Sforza

Posted on 11/14/2023 4:06:15 PM PST by Texan4Life

“Separation of church and state … is a misnomer. People misunderstand it,” Johnson said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” when asked about him praying on the House floor. “Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote is not in the Constitution.”

“And what he was explaining is they did not want the government to encroach upon the church, not that they didn’t want principles of faith to have influence on our public life. It’s exactly the opposite,” the Speaker added.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Moral Issues; Prayer; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; atheism; church; communism; constitution; johnson; mikejohnson; separation; speakerjohnson; state
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To: Smellin Salt

The Danbury Baptists did not want the Govt. to be able to make being a member of (another) Protestant Denomination a requirement to serve in Govt. That’s all the letter of separation concerned. Nothing More. Scalia said the (modern) interpretation of the 1st Amendment and Separation of Church and State was WRONG!!


21 posted on 11/14/2023 4:45:00 PM PST by Texan4Life
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To: Texan4Life
The 1st Amendment is to keep Govt. out of the Church's Business...

More precisely, it is the right of the people to worship.

There is no entity called "the Church." Constitutionally, "the Church" is simply We the People who choose to peaceably assemble to worship in the same way. Different assemblies of people choose to worship in different ways based on different religious beliefs.

The Bill of Rights was meant to define the rights of the people that the government cannot encroach upon. Jefferson's "wall of separation between Church and State" means that the wall was meant to keep government out of the right of the people to congregate and worship. It was not meant to wall of religion from the government.

The true separation between church and state is Article VI, which states "but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States," which says that the state cannot deny people of faith the right to hold office.

-PJ

22 posted on 11/14/2023 4:46:18 PM PST by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: Texan4Life

Its my understanding that when Kings changed in England they would implement their own interpretation of what religion was to be , that is the basis for our amendment.


23 posted on 11/14/2023 4:57:04 PM PST by mythenjoseph (Always tired but so grateful American !)
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To: Thank You Rush

Right on the “Brian Boitano”. Means you hit the nail right on the “button”...

The way my goofy mind works I guess.


24 posted on 11/14/2023 5:02:10 PM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Texan4Life

What an inspired choice for Speaker.


25 posted on 11/14/2023 5:03:46 PM PST by Ge0ffrey
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To: Texan4Life

In England, the monarch was the head of the church and the state. If there’s no separation, there’s no free conscience. God bless America.


26 posted on 11/14/2023 5:05:55 PM PST by Ge0ffrey
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To: Texan4Life

27 posted on 11/14/2023 5:19:09 PM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. (Psalm 33:12))
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To: stars & stripes forever

If cats did have opposable thumbs, we’d be their pets, instead of the other way around.


28 posted on 11/14/2023 5:22:20 PM PST by x (a.k.a. Meta)
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To: Nextrush; All

No; the phrase in Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists is “wall of separation between church and state”.

The USSR twisted that many years later, declaring in their constitution: “In the USSR, the church is separated from the state and the school from the church.”


29 posted on 11/14/2023 5:31:42 PM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Texan4Life
We need separation of state and political parties.

There is no real structural difference at all between a religion and a party.

They are each mechanisms of a belief system.

They each have their doctrines, their dogma, their priests, their adherents, their liturgy, their lists of prescriptions and proscriptions...

Political parties wield undue influence upon government.

I have thought this for a VERY long time and no one has yet convinced me otherwise.

One just happens to pertain to God and the other pertain to man. Otherwise, they are exactly the same.

30 posted on 11/14/2023 5:32:05 PM PST by Ciaphas Cain (America will need de-liberalization just as Germany had de-nazification.)
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To: Mariner

Correct. It was not an absence of faith they wanted. They didn’t want one denomiation to be a national religion, that so many of the european countries had. And before those, the “holy roman empire”.


31 posted on 11/14/2023 5:36:21 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Texan4Life

Thank you Speaker Johnson, and as a reminder, thank you Congressman Gaetz.


32 posted on 11/14/2023 5:37:50 PM PST by patriot torch (..)
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To: Jim W N

Goofy is ok....we’ll all be there soon!!!


33 posted on 11/14/2023 5:40:35 PM PST by Thank You Rush ( )
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To: Thank You Rush

Ever since Brian Boitano came on the scene for some reason when I thought of “hitting it on the button”, I thought of “hitting it on the Brain Boitano”. I’ve actually found some others doing the same thing. Goofy huh? But funny, I think.


34 posted on 11/14/2023 5:44:41 PM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Olog-hai

Thank you for the clarification what’s important in my mind is that Justice Hugo Black reached for that in his 1947 Everson opinion at the Supreme Court.

That set the ball in motion for rulings on Bible Readings and School Prayer in the 1960’s and this mythology about “Separation of Church and State”.


35 posted on 11/14/2023 6:09:17 PM PST by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS-REMEMBER REV. NIEMOLLER)
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To: Jim W N

What would Brian Boitano do? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNJmfuEWR8w Language warning.


36 posted on 11/14/2023 6:24:53 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: EvilCapitalist

Haven’t you ever heard of “hit on the Brain Boitano” instead of “hit it on the button”?

I don’t know, I heard it somewhere and it stuck.


37 posted on 11/14/2023 6:36:07 PM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Texan4Life

Jefferson was talking about The Separation of the POWERS of Church and the POWERS Of State.

I.E. The Pope should not also be the President.


38 posted on 11/14/2023 6:36:33 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on flight MH370)
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To: Texan4Life

Great statement from the new Speaker. Now if he would just cut spending!!!!!


39 posted on 11/14/2023 6:50:02 PM PST by Jonny7797
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To: bigbob

Yes Truth.


40 posted on 11/14/2023 8:01:28 PM PST by Engedi
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