"Separation of Church and State" is not in the Constitution! The First Amendment says just the opposite, and not only does Jefferson's letter to the Baptists (below) actually clarify this, but also Jefferson's own apparent violations of what progressives think he meant.

First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The Big Lie of Progressives: There is no such law as the separation of church and state! This phrase does not appear in ANY founding document. It is not in the Constitution of the United States. It is however in the 'Constitution' of the former Soviet Union (Article 124 of the USSR Constitution - 1922-1991). Learn how progressives have twisted the intent of Jefferson's Letter to the Baptists....

Thomas Jefferson's own "free exercise thereof " is evidence that the despotic branch, and groups like the ACLU, have deceptively misrepresented the "establishment clause."

Thomas Jefferson said: "No power over the freedom of religion is delegated to the United States by the Constitution." And "I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises." Jefferson's own words and action depict just the opposite of what Liberals, the ACLU, Barry Lynn, and others would have you believe.

In his second inaugural address Jefferson stated: "In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies...." While Thomas Jefferson was president of the school board, in 1804, Bible reading and the use of the Bible as a textbook was implemented in the first public schools of the District of Columbia.

Part of the curricular plan designed by Thomas Jefferson for the University of Virginia was moral instruction, including "the proof of the being of a God, the Creator" in public schools to be taught by teachers.

Religious instruction on an equal footing with other instruction, as occurred at the University of Virginia, when Thomas Jefferson was rector and approved of setting aside a chapel "for religious worship" and "proposed to encourage various denominations to situate their theological schools near the University," thus "enabling the students of the University to attend religious exercises."

Also, concerning our Nation Jefferson said: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - "Yes, we did produce a near perfect Republic. But will they keep it, or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction."

And: "I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."

...The director of the Center for Christian Statesmanship says the men who founded America never intended to remove God from public life. Dr. Frank Wright says quite the contrary, most were devout Christians who applied their Christian faith to everyday life, including government. He says President Thomas Jefferson is a good example. He notes that at the same time Jefferson served as president, he was the chairman of the D.C. public school system -- and mandated in 1804 that two books be taught in those schools: the Bible and Watts' Hymnal. Wright calls that "an extraordinary thing to do" for someone who believes in the "separation of church and state." Wright believes anti-Gospel forces like the American Civil Liberties Union have twisted the working of the establishment clause and developed their own false interpretation about separation of church and state -- which he says the founding fathers never intended.

American Minute with Bill Federer - December 3 - President Thomas Jefferson, author of the phrase "Separation of Church and State," asked Congress to ratify a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians, which they did this day, DECEMBER 3, 1803. Negotiated shortly after the Louisiana Purchase by future President William Henry Harrison, the Treaty stated:

"And whereas the greater part of the said tribe have been baptized and received into the Catholic Church, to which they are much attached, the United States will give annually, for seven years, one hundred dollars toward the support of a priest of that religion, who will engage to perform for said tribe the duties of his office, and also to instruct as many of their children as possible, in the rudiments of literature, and the United States will further give the sum of three hundred dollars, to assist the said tribe in the erection of a church."

Later in 1806 and 1807, two similar treaties were made with the Wyandotte and Cherokee tribes.

On April 26, 1802, Thomas Jefferson extended a 1787 act of Congress in which special lands were designated:

"For the sole use of Christian Indians and the Moravian Brethren missionaries for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity."

Samuel Adams: "In the supposed state of nature, all men are equally bound by the laws of nature, or to speak more properly, the laws of the Creator." ..."And if we now cast our eyes over the nations of the earth, we shall find that, instead of possessing the pure religion of the Gospel, they may be divided either into infidels, who deny the truth; or politicians who make religion a stalking horse for their ambition; or professors, who walk in the trammels of orthodoxy, and are more attentive to traditions and ordinances of men than to the oracles of truth." ..."We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come." Samuel Adams political involvement is widely acknowledged and valued. But it was Adam's Christian faith that guided his political views. "First of all, I ... rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins." His essay, The Rights of the Colonists was widely circulated in 1772. In it he wrote, "The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty. The rights of the colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institution of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament."

George Washington: "If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the constitution framed by the Convention . . . might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it."

"We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States."

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist: "The wall of separation between church and state is a metaphor based upon bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned. ... The greatest injury of the 'wall' notion is its mischievous diversion of judges from the actual intention of the drafters of the Bill of Rights."

"We must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic. Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest enlightenment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution." - "Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitiveness to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invasion by foreign armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior." --Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States

"Justices" ignoring law and instead, imposing their own "political" views that blatantly oppose the U. S. Constitution. Why, because they know, their decisions which are anti-family and anti-Christian would loose in a popular vote. Thus the liberal filibuster against moral justices, in an attempt to legislate immorality.

Wall of Separation of Church and State - Justice William O'Douglas - Justice William O. Douglas wrote the majority decision in the 1952 case ofZorach v. Clauson: "The First Amendment, however, does not say that in every and all respects there shall be a separation of Church and State... Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other - hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly... Municipalities would not be permitted to render police or fire protection to religious groups.

Policemen who helped parishioners into their places of worship would violate the Constitution. Prayers in our legislative halls; the appeals to the Almighty in the messages of the Chief Executive; the proclamations making Thanksgiving Day a holiday; "so help me God" in our courtroom oaths - these and all other references to the Almighty that run through our laws, our public rituals, our ceremonies would be flouting the First Amendment. A fastidious atheist or agnostic could even object to the supplication with which the Court opens each session: 'God save the United States and this Honorable Court...'"

Justice Douglas continued: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being... When the state encourages religious instruction...it follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs. To hold that it may not would be to find in the Constitution a requirement that the government show a callous indifference to religious groups. That would be preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe." Justice William Douglas concluded: "We find no constitutional requirement which makes it necessary for government to be hostile to religion and to throw its weight against efforts to widen the effective scope of religious influence... We cannot read into the Bill of Rights such a philosophy of hostility to religion."

Jefferson's Letter to the Baptists:

Thomas Jefferson (in his oft miss-quoted dissertation on the subject) did NOT state that there was or should be such a separation, but that there was a "wall of separation" which the government could not breach. The misunderstood statement from Thomas Jefferson has resulted in Judges who ignore the Constitution and the original intent of the First Amendment of our Founding Fathers. Jefferson's statement was in a letter to a group of Baptists in Connecticut (January 1, 1802), who were concerned about the government breaching their religious freedom and the affairs of the Church. Jefferson in his letter stated exactly this:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and 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 and State."

Is not Jefferson saying the legislature can not favor a specific religion and it can not prohibit religious exercise? As he also stated: "No power over the freedom of religion is delegated to the United States by the Constitution."

In another letter the same Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I consider the government of the U.S. as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises." (letter to Samuel Miller, 23 January 1809) Reference: Jefferson Writings, Peterson, ed., 1186.

Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists

The Draft and Recently Discovered Text

To messers Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem & approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful & zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and, in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more & more pleasing. 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 and 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 eternal separation between Church & State. Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from prescribing even those occasional performances of devotion, practiced indeed by the Executive of another nation as the legal head of its church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect,

[Jefferson first wrote: "confining myself therefore to the duties of my station, which are merely temporal, be assured that your religious rights shall never be infringed by any act of mine and that." These lines he crossed out and then wrote: "concurring with"; having crossed out these two words, he wrote: "Adhering to this great act of national legislation in behalf of the rights of conscience"; next he crossed out these words and wrote: "Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience I shall see with friendly dispositions the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced that he has no natural rights 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 & the Danbury Baptist [your religious] association assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th Jefferson

Jan. 1. 1802.

from http://earstohear.net

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