Sometimes I think I should write about this or just repost an article about this at least once a month. NOWHERE in the United States Constitution, any Amendments nor any other official founding documents of our country do they say- "separation of church and state." What is stated in the first amendment is this: "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." Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "a wall of separation between church and state" in a letter to some Baptists, but it is not a matter of the Constitution, etc. Even Jefferson's comment is known among most who know about him and the letter, know it was simply a comment about politics, not the way things are interpreted today.
When the first part of the first amendment was being added, the government was trying to do a number of things, but basically these two: keep the governments fingers out of the church and make sure that there was no government run church as there was in England at the time. They did not write, nor did they intend for God to be excluded from everything and anything that is government sanctioned. One of the reasons they actually came here was for the freedom OF religion- not the freedom FROM religion! Go back and read the short history of this country. Almost every government activity originally began with prayer and most of the time a reading of Scripture and a maybe a devotional of some type! Up until and shortly after Civil War times, they actually held worship services in the House of Representatives! Now it's a fight to sometimes to get a school to allow a church to meet in there cafeteria sometimes. So let's back off of the "separated" argument and get back to doing what's right.
No comments:
Post a Comment