Last night I found myself, yet again, launching into a familiar tirade while discussing politics in my parents bedroom. My father was thoroughly silenced, my mom nodded her head in agreement, my brother grunted from down the hall, and my cats just looked up at me blankly. I have said these things so many times, that I have now found it necessary to write them down in a constant stream of words. So, grab a history book, the constitution of the United States of American, and a pencil.
All to often I hear the phrase "Separation of Church and State" thrown about the media. It has become a liberal mantra for politicians calling to the masses of quote "non-Judeo-Christians." Often, they criticize there constituents on the basis of their religious views, citing this very same passage of the Constitution. Well, allow me to quote it here for those politicians who are uneducated:
Oh, wait, I can't. Because its not there!!!!!!
Only in 1801, do we find Jefferson coining the phrase in a letter to a religious group who felt that there freedom was being oppressed by the state legislature. This is was a short handed version of the First Amendment, which I willing quote here:
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.
That's all it is!!! It is put there to protect the people from the government, not the government from religion.
It is also never stated in any letter, any bill, any note or memo from any of the Founding Fathers, anything about a separation of State and Faith. In fact, faith was the foundation of there very existence. It was the institution of the Church that was cause for concern for them.
For the last three hundred years, religion had been a major issue in Europe, specifically England. With King Henry the 8th in the 1534 completely separating himself from the Catholic church, and then declaring himself Soverign Ruler of the Church of England, we have the massive kick-off the game of religious tennis. When Mary the 1st came into reign, she declared the religion to be Catholicism. And then burned everyone who refused to become a Catholic. Elizabeth the Great changed it back to Protistanism. All this took place in little more then a decade. Lets not also forget the massive trouble it took just for the Pilgrims on the Mayflower trying to get to Religious freedom, just be able to sail from Europe.
As much as people like to deny it, it is true that America has a European background. Therefore, it makes sense that the English-man who wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (not being racist here, its only the truth) wouldn't want the same thing happening in America that had already taken place in England: A ruler of both the Church and the State.
This idea has absolutely nothing to do with Faith in a Supreme being. You can still have faith and rule a country!!!
So, ultimately, that's my point. In no way, shape, or form, does the words "Separation of Church and State" appear in the Constitution. It gets bandied about by the media like some kind of sword, and its getting tiring. It makes the rest of us people with faith look bad.
