That's not in the Constitution...

“I would bring a $100 bill, and I would say, ‘Alright, first person’ - and everybody has their iPhone - and I would say, ‘First person to find in the Constitution the phrase ‘separation of church and state' gets this $100 bill’... And you know what - and everybody knows that, right? - that phrase isn’t in the U.S. Constitution. It's nowhere.”  Jeffrey Mateer

The Supreme Court recently ruled that a 40-foot tall cross erected on public property in Maryland doesn’t violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The 40-foot high Peace Cross in Bladensburg, Maryland was erected in 1919 as a memorial to Americans killed in World War I. Today it stands on a highway median owned by a state commission. But the American Humanist Association filed a lawsuit arguing that the cross’s placement on public land is an unconstitutional establishment of religion. A lower court agreed, suggesting that the monument either be moved or its cross arms cut off, so it’d be shaped like an obelisk rather than a Christian cross. This continues to show the ignorance of religion by our judicial system in that they switched from one religion to another. An obelisk was the symbol of the religion of ancient Egypt.

  The outcome of such fuzzy reasoning could be that all the religious symbols, even in places like Arlington National Cemetery, must be removed. There are 60 approved religious symbols in Arlington including the Star of David, the Russian Orthodox Cross, the Pentagram for Wiccans and the Hammer of Thor for Heathen religions.  

  This ruling won’t settle the matter. Lawsuits against religion are based on ignorance of the Constitution and the intent of the Founding Fathers. But such challenges were unheard of until 1947. It’s worth noting that the key player, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, was a racist KKK member. Until 1947 there were no serious questions that our Founding Fathers’ intent was freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

  That phrase, “a wall of separation between church and state,” isn’t in the Constitution. It was taken from personal correspondence of then President Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Many Founding Fathers wanted a state church in each state. Those who weren’t part of the state church were jailed, fined or beaten. In 1775 Patrick Henry defended three Baptist preachers arrested for preaching without authority from the state church of Virginia.

  Because of persecution and fear of the establishment of a state church, Baptists, though knowing Jefferson was a Deist, supported his presidency. They rightly believed that Jefferson was committed to the freedom of religion and helped him win the election over John Adams. In early 1802, President Jefferson responded to their letter of congratulations. The Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut had written him in October 1801, congratulating him on winning the election. They celebrated his advocacy for religious liberty. In a characteristically carefully crafted reply, Jefferson endorsed the persecuted Baptists’ aspirations for religious liberty:

  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, & 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 & State.

  Not only is it not part of the Constitution, the phrase has been horribly misconstrued. Jefferson’s intent was to make a political statement reassuring his Baptist constituents that he was a friend of religion and to strike back at the Federalist-Congregationalist establishment for shamelessly vilifying him as an infidel and atheist in the recent campaign.

  Throughout his career, including two terms as President, Jefferson pursued policies incompatible with today’s definition of separation of church and state. He endorsed the use of federal funds to build churches and to support missionaries working among the Indians. The intent of Jefferson and our Founding Fathers was to keep government out of the church, not the church out of government.

  The Maryland Constitution of 1776 emphasized belief in God but separated denomination and state, stating “it is the duty of every man to worship God in such manner as he thinks most acceptable to him.” If the legislature passed a tax for supporting the poor, a taxpayer could have his money go to “the poor of his own denomination, or the poor in general of any particular county.” Other states had similar laws. In South Carolina, taxes could be used to support churches, as long as no one was “obliged to pay towards the maintenance and support of a religious worship” not his own. The Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 emphasized toleration, “no subject shall be hurt, molested, or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for worshipping God in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.” But it also encouraged worship, because “The happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion, and morality.”

  Virginia Governor Patrick Henry thought religious belief was essential. George Washington, John Marshall, and George Mason, later known as the Father of the 1^st Amendment, did as well. If someone had given a speech on the 4^th of July back then and proclaimed that God was disestablished, his listeners would have questioned his sanity.

  Our Founding Fathers had no intent of establishing a “wall of separation.” They knew a religious vacuum is impossible. A secularist intent to divorce religion from public life by promoting a religion that’s essentially private and a state that’s strictly secular was foreign to them, and would have alarmed them. They viewed religion, to paraphrase George Washington, “as an indispensable support for social order and political prosperity.”

  So, the next time someone tells you that “separation of church and state” is in the Constitution, ask them where.

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