The "separation of church and state" fraud

by

Gerald Plessner

June 28, 2006 - Neo-conservatives who say that because the words "separation of church and state" do not appear in the Constitution, and therefore our laws do not require observance of the concept, are wrong. They do a great disservice to America and its noble history.

Religious and political leaders who advocate for the placement of religious symbols on government property or the insertion of religious ideas like intelligent design into public school curricula, just don't understand our country's Founders or their beliefs about the American democracy they created.

When they fought for freedom from England, the colonists were also fighting against a government that subjected them to the authority of a state church, the Church of England.

Most of the American colonies were established by religious groups that left Europe, wanting to avoid persecution and to practice their own religion without interference or oppression. But except for Rhode Island and Maryland, those founding groups did not believe in toleration for religions other than their own.

Some of the colonies paid a stipend to ministers of the Church of England, a practice the authors meant to eliminate in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and most of the Founders were opposed to such subsidies and their specific intent in adopting the Bill of Rights was to minimize church involvement in political affairs.

Except perhaps for Benjamin Franklin who detested organized religion, the authors of the Constitution were mostly Protestant Christians, according to a count of burial sites in the U.S. National Archives "The Charters of Freedom" collection Two were Roman Catholic.(www.archives.gov)

Their religious practices and beliefs were quite different from most of today's American Christians. The Founders who were not Catholic were predominantly Deists. They believed in the deity of Christ but they seem to have written more often of a Creator and Supreme Being.

While all except Franklin were probably active in their churches, their intention to separate church from state is an indisputable fact of history. They would probably be upset if they saw any religious institution receiving government funding for any kind of program.

And because they were men of the Enlightenment, they would be horrified at the idea of something like intelligent design being taught in public schools.

Although they probably believed in the Old Testament version of Creation --- as almost every religious person in the Western World would have at the time --- their education and their experience with the expanding ideas of the Enlightenment would have given them cause to believe that science and scientific method were vital to the improvement of life here on earth.

The concept of the separation of church and state has served America well. It has created a climate in which people of many and varied religions can live side by side, sharing a tolerance and understanding of each other's beliefs, heritage and customs.

Separation of church and state is an integral part of the concept of American democracy that we should want to see oppressed peoples everywhere have an opportunity to choose democracy. Religious and political neo-Conservatives do a great disservice to their own principles and aspirations when they denigrate the idea of separation of church and state.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerald Plessner is a resident of Arcadia who writes on subjects of politics and culture. He would be pleased to hear from you and may be contacted at gerald@geraldplessner.com.