Responding to Garry Gamble’s March 18 letter:
In search of facts vs. wishful thinking, remember that the book The Myth of Separation by D. Barton contains bogus quotes to propagate his beliefs. Historians found at least nine out of 12 quotations to be fraudulent. This damage to history is perpetuated even as Barton has admitted to the falsehood.
Rev. Roger Williams (1635) risked execution and was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony when he objected to government enforcement of proper religious behavior. He argued for a “wall of Separation between the Garden of the Church and the Wilderness of the World.” (Read Smithsonian Jan. 2012).
“Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on person of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the ‘wall of separation between church and state’, therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.” Thomas Jefferson.
“I have…always regarded the practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government as essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution…” James Madison, primary author of our Constitution.
“The principle of law, is, that the gospel is not to be supported by law; that civil rulers have nothing to do with religion, in their civil capacities.” Baptist, John Leland, 1791.
The “90 Founding Fathers” formed our Constitution, which has not one mention of God. Congress is not to make laws about the establishment or exercise of religion. A religious test for public office is prohibited. That’s it.
It is not the phrase, but the concept of separation that is clearly expressed by our Constitution through its neutrality. For centuries Christians had slaughtered Christians over the way each chose to worship Christ. Our founders chose instead a secular government through a secular constitution to represent all citizens in public, civil matters, without regard to religious faith and beliefs. I am so grateful!
“United with government, religion never rises above the merest superstition; united with religion, government never rises above the merest despotism; and all history shows us that the more widely and completely they are separated, the better it is for both.” Ohio Supreme Court 1872.”
E Pluribus Unum
Geri Jensen
Grand Marais
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