The Truth About Separation of
Church and State
By Dr. J.
D. Watson
Pastor-Teacher
Grace Bible
Church
Meeker, CO
81641
One of the most frustrating aspects of
American society is the blatant dishonesty of the
liberal news media. One of countless illustrations of
this dishonesty is the twisting of the principle of
“separation of Church and State” to mean something that
it was NEVER intended to mean. I presented what follows
in a sermon I preached on November 19, 2000
(Pilgrims on the
Earth), but wanted to repeat it here in case you
might overlook that message. Feel free to distribute
this.
It is a fact of American life nowadays that
anytime the Bible, Ten Commandments, or any moral
standard based on Scripture arises, the cry that
immediately goes up is, “Oh, but that violates the
separation of church and state; the First Amendment
prohibits religious values in public affairs.” We
have heard this rhetoric for decades, but does the First
Amendment really say that? The First Amendment reads
thusly:
Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise
thereof.
Not only are the words
“separation of church and state” not found in the First
Amendment, they
do not appear in any founding document. What then
does the First Amendment
mean?
The U.S. Congressional Records of June 7 through
September 25, 1789— the dates in which the Founders
framed the First Amendment—clearly demonstrate the
Founders’ intent. The Founders wanted to ensure that
what happened in England did not happen in America,
namely, that the federal government would not be allowed
to establishment a national denomination to the
excluding of all others. The records show that in all
the discussions and early wordings of the First
Amendment, the Founders used the word “religion”
interchangeably with the word “denomination.” They had absolutely
no intention whatsoever of excluding Biblical principles
and religious values in public
affairs.
Just one example of many is Fisher Ames, who,
according to the Congressional Record of September 20,
1789, was the man who actually offered the final wording
of the First Amendment. In an article in a national
magazine dated January 1801, Ames wrote of his concern
about all the new textbooks that were appearing. He said
that while these are good, the Bible still must never be
replaced as the number one textbook in our
schools:
Why then, if these books for
children must be retained, as they will be, should not
the Bible regain the place it once held as a school
book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and
noble.
So, the Bible did not violate
Fisher Ames’ view of the First Amendment. Several other
Founding Fathers, such as Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster,
John Adams, and George Washington all warned that
removing religious and moral principles from the
classroom would result in serious social problems.
And this is precisely what has happened in
America.
From where, then, does the phrase “separation of
church and state” come? It first appeared in a letter
written by Thomas Jefferson in 1801, who was then
President. This letter was a reply to the Danbury
Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut, who heard a
rumor that the Congregationalist denomination was going
to be made the national religion and wrote Jefferson in
protest. In his reply, Jefferson assured them that they
should have no fear of this
because:
. . . I contemplate with sovereign reverence that
act of the whole American people which declared that
their legislation should “make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof” [i.e., The First Amendment], thus
building a wall of separation between church and state.
[The Writings of
Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition (Washington: The
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United
States, 1903), pp.
281-282.]
The context and intent of
Jefferson’s letter had nothing whatsoever to do with
removing the Bible and morality from government, rather
it dealt with the original intent of the First
Amendment, namely, that there would never be a national
denomination.
But in spite of these historical facts, in 1962
the phrase “separation of church and state” was ripped
completely from its context and intent. On June 25,
1962, in the court case Engel v. Vitale, the
Supreme Court used that phrase to redefine “church.”
For 170 years before this case, the court defined
“church” as being a federally established denomination,
but it now meant any religious activity performed
in public. And as we’ve seen, this ruling set America on
her downward course.
The facts are that the intent of the Founding
Fathers was never, never, NEVER to
separate God and government. They believed that God must
be at the center of government. Tragically that is not
the case today and we see the results.
