The IM Writers Association. We aim to create a community of writers who share a common faith and passion for writing that advances the Life of Jesus Christ. #4 The Separation of Church and StateIDENTITY POLITICS | Mark Boonstra: Where in our Founding Documents would you find the “Separation of Church and State” clause? Read more...
Today, Mark details the history of the myth of “separation of church & state.”
Where in our Founding Documents would you find the “Separation of Church and State” clause?The question is often met with blank stares. Why? Because the God-less Left has worked overtime to convince Americans that it is there . . . somewhere. We’re just not quite sure where. But we all know (don’t we?) that our Founding Fathers created a “wall of separation,” so that religion would be confined to our churches and kept out of our schools (especially) and American society (more generally). Isn’t that why, for example, America has experienced the events captured by these recent headlines (just to name a few):
Well, no.To some, thankfully, the question prompts shouts of “Nowhere!” And that, of course, is correct. But we’ve all heard the phrase: “Separation of church and state.” Right? So, where did the phrase come from . . . and what does it mean exactly? At the time the American colonies were founded, most had established churches. Virginia, for example, was an Anglican colony. By contrast, Massachusetts and Connecticut were puritan, or Congregational, colonies. That meant that if you did not belong to the colony’s “established” church, you were penalized under the law. You might not be able to vote or hold office. You might be taxed to support the favored church. You might be told what you could properly believe and how you could properly worship. That all changed, or course. And when the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, the First Amendment to the Constitution expressly provided that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But what about the states?Concerns about state restrictions led the Danbury Baptists Association in the state of Connecticut to write to President Thomas Jefferson on October 7, 1801, seeking assurances that they would be able to practice their religion as they saw fit. Jefferson, of course, had long been an advocate of religious freedom protections in his home state of Virginia.So, the Danbury Baptists–while observing that the “president of the United States is not the national legislator,” and that “the national government cannot destroy the laws of each state”–expressed that their “hopes are strong that the sentiments of our beloved president . . . will shine and prevail through all these states and all the world.” They expressed their belief “that America’s God has raised you up to fill the chair of state out of that goodwill which he bears to the millions which you preside over,” and offered, “May God strengthen you for your arduous task which providence and the voice of the people have called you to sustain.” Jefferson responded on January 1, 1802, reiterating his agreement that religion is a matter “between Man & his God.” He expressed that the freedom of religion embodied in the First Amendment built “a wall of separation between Church & State” that would restrain the powers of government from infringing on natural rights. Here are Jefferson’s words: 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, & 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 & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem. In other words, and despite subsequent distortions of Jefferson’s call for a “wall of separation” between church and state, it is clear from his words and from context that his desire was not to protect the state from religion, but rather to protect churches—all churches—from encroachment by the state. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.By the way, they also want you to think that Jefferson was not a Christian and was just a deist. Really? Certainly, he was an unconventional Christian in certain respects (more about that in a later column). But did you know that Jefferson, in addition authoring the Declaration of Independence (and its proclamation that our unalienable rights are “endowed to us by our Creator”):
So much for the “wall separation of church and state” as it has come to be perceived today. -Mark | Mark’s Substack | Visit Mark’s Website
* Portions of my essay are derived from my 3-volume work: In Their Own Words: Today’s God-less America . . . What Would Our Founding Fathers Think?
IM Writers Association is a collective group of Christian writers who support the advancement of the Gospel of Jesus Christ while sustaining an eschatological view of the Holy Scriptures of God.
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