For the last several decades, the secularists have been using a concept they call "separation of church and state" to force an increasing sterilization from religion on public life. They say that because the Constitution demands "separation of church and state", that all levels of government and all government organizations must have absolutely no vestiges of religion present in them. Teachers in public schools are banned from leading their students in voluntary prayer, a practice that used to be common (though not mandatory.) Judges have been ordered to remove replicas of the Ten Commandments from their court buildings. Many public buildings have been ordered to not display nativity scenes or menorahs at Christmas or Hannukah. Indeed, this purging of religion is so deep-seated in the hearts of secularists that it sometimes goes much farther than the law or court orders call for. There are numerous instances of children in public schools being severely repremanded by school administration for privately praying or reading the Bible in public school, even though these activities are completely legal.
And so, many Christians have simply cowered in fear for the last few decades, giving up more and more of the religious expression that their fathers knew in this country. After all, the Constitution demands it, right?
The origin of the phrase "separation of church and state" is actually in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson while he was president in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut. (See this page at USConstitution.net for the entire correspondence and summary information.) The Danbury Baptists were concerned about their state's treatment of freedom of religion, complaining "that religion is considered as the first object of legislation; and therefore what religious privileges we enjoy... we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights." Jefferson responded:
The favorite argument of the secularists is that the Constitution is a "living document" which must change as society changes. This means that as society (or at least parts of it) shifts away from religious values and towards secular humanism, the Constitution must be interpreted in different ways. The result of this philosophy is that secularist judges have simply declared the highest law of the land to mean things that it doesn't say, and to not mean things that it does say.
That is why we see cases like that of Roy Moore, elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000. Justice Moore famously put a Ten Commandments monument in Alabama's Supreme Court building, was sued for doing so by secularist/atheist organizations, and was ordered by federal judge Myron Thompson to remove it in 2002. Judge Thompson stated that "The issue is, can the state acknowledge God?"[1] Now, we have seen that there is no law preventing the government from doing just that. But, in the following quote, maverick judge Thompson decides that the answer to that question should be "no":
"Chief Justice Moore's actions and intentions...crossed the line between the permissible and impermissible."[3]
The Constitution is a legal document... it says what it says. The writers of the Constitution realized that, in the years after them, changes would probably be necessary to the nation's highest law, and so provided the amendment process. When the Constitution needs to be changed, there is a specific process by which new language is written in to the Constitution in the form of an amendment by Congress. If the secularists want the Constitution to prohibit the government from taking part in religion at all, let them gain a majority and amend the Constitution (and then watch our civilization crumble.) To intentionally misinterpret the laws that constitute our nation is foolishness, deceit, and despotism.
There is a good reason why the fathers defined freedom of religion and separation of church and state in the way that they did. They firmly believed that a government had no right to tell its citizens how to worship, and knew from history's examples that to try to do so was futile and tyrannical. They also firmly believed that freedom, justice, and the establishment of the nation of America were ultimately from on high, not from the power of men. They laws they wrote were designed to govern a people who lived by Judeo/Christian morality. They never intended for the government or its officials to be devoid of religion, as is evidenced by their own words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
It would surprise many people (even many lawyers) to discover that the words "separation of church and state" do not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The "establishment clause" of the First Amendment used to be known as "freedom of religion", a phrase you will hear secularists use about as often as a communist despot would. The amendment means that Congress cannot make a law that creates a religion (an official religion of the state), or that keeps people from practicing whatever religion they choose in the manner that they choose.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people 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.
Secularists define Jefferson's "wall of separation" as meaning that the government is banned not only from forcing religion on people or hindering them from religion, but also from participating in, endorsing, or sometimes even acknowledging religion, claiming that this is the true spirit of the law. But Jefferson himself defined his "wall of separation" exclusively with the exact words of the First Amendment, with no further additions. It must be asked of the secularists, if the spirit of the law is to keep the government and/or its officials from even participating in, endorsing, or acknowledging religion, why is this spirit of the law so radically different from the letter of the law? Where is the language in the First Amendment that prohibits the government from endorsing or promoting religion, so long as "Congress makes no law"? We have already seen that the First Amendment specifically and exclusively says these three things and only these three things about religion:
Any religious action that the government takes outside of these three restrictions is unaffected by the First Amendment. This has startling implications:
All of these actions do violate the secularists' imaginary version of the First Amendment which they have had mandated into existence by maverick judges over the last few decades, but do not violate the real, actual First Amendment.
"Even if, for the sake of argument, history could be read to support the chief justice's argument that Ten Commandments displays in government buildings have been a sufficiently historical part of the fabric of our society, this tradition would fall far short of providing a constitutional basis for the chief justice's Ten Commandments monument."[2]
Now, according to the actual Constitution, the "constitutional basis" for any government involvement in religious matters is whether or not "Congress [makes a] law with respect to an establishment of religion or [prohibits] the free exercise thereof", which obviously is not violated by a chief justice putting up a Ten Commandments monument. But judge Thompson and his ilk do not rule according to what the Constitution actually says, but what the liberal secularists wish it said -- namely, "the government shall ensure that no public display or mention of religion is made." This is evidenced by a further quote from judge Thompson:
"His fundamental, if not sole, purpose in displaying the monument was non-secular; and the monument's primary effect advances religion."[3]
What is constitutionally impermissible about putting up a Ten Commandments monument? What law does that cause Congress to make? How is religion established, or the free exercise thereof prohibited? This exemplifies the "living document" concept: simply say that the Constitution says something that it doesn't, and hope everyone believes you.
And the humanist liberals want us to believe that the men who said these things were secularists who intended for their government to squash religion from the public eye? The founders were not all perfect Christians with the purest of theologies, but certainly these men all believed in the God of the Bible, that he intervenes in the affairs of men and nations, and that the United States of America was and is always to be a nation whose society is founded upon and permeated with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. -Preamble to the Declaration of Independence
No wonder the Declaration has been banned from some classrooms. According to liberal/atheist dogma, the Declaration of Independence is unconstitutional!
What students would learn in American schools above all is the religion of Jesus Christ.
-George Washington
I can hear the AEA having a collective aneurism right now. Apparently ol' George didn't get the memo that the founding fathers were supposed to think teaching Christianity in schools was tyranny.
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
-John Adams
It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.
-Patrick Henry
Of course modern-day liberals beg to differ with founding father Patrick Henry that the founding fathers were Christians...
God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.
-Thomas Jefferson
God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.
-Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention of 1787
It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, [unless] first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves.
-Samuel Johnston
Can you imagine how quickly someone would be crucified for saying that today?
[2]. http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/specialreports/TENcommandments/StoryAlabamacommandNOV19w.htm
[3]. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/18/politics/main529770.shtml
Founding Fathers Quotes at EadsHome Ministries
Were the Founding Fathers "Deists," "Freethinkers," and "Infidels?" at Christians for the "Test Oath"