From: parsons@cis.ksu.edu (Scott S Parish )
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Re: "Separation of Church and State"
Date: 16 Dec 92 04:52:24 GMT
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: cygnus.cis.ksu.edu

bobbe@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Robert Beauchaine) writes:

>jimb@rcx1.csd.harris.com (Jim Burmeister) writes:
>>
>>Occasionally we hear someone point out that the words "separation of church
>>and state" don't appear in the U.S. Constitution--the wording is something 
>>like "Congress shall pass no laws restricting the free exercise of religion"
>>(inexact quote).  My question is, who first came up with the phrase "Separation
>>of Church and State" and in what context was it used?  I would like as exact
>>a reference as possible.

>"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 soveriegn 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."

>     [Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT.
>      "The Complete Jefferson" by Saul K. Padover, pp 518-519]

"... Although the statesmen and patriots who framed the Constitution had
made it clear that no one Christian denomination would become the official
denomination, the Danbury Baptists expressed their concern over a rumor
that a particular denomination was soon to be recognized as the national
denomination.  On January 1, 1802, President Jefferson responded to the
Danbury Baptists in a letter.  He calmed their fears by using the now 
infamous phrase to assure them that the federal government would not
establish any single denomination of Christianity as the national
denomination.

... Jefferson's words of assurance to the Danbury Baptist Association 
were soon forgotton since the rumor never became fact.  Jeferson's speech
remained in obscurity, as is usual with most presidential addresses
delivered to specific audiences, until 76 years later when it appeared
in the 1878 case of Reynolds v. United States.  In that case, a lengthy
excerpt from Jefferson's speech was used, and its context clearly presented.
In that case, the [Supreme] Court did NOT use Jefferson's speech to attempte 
to spearate church and state, but used it in an opposite manner.

The opportunity for the Court to use Jefferson's speech arose in 1878 when
the Mormons claimed that the First Amendment's 'free exercise of religion'
promise and the 'separation of church and state' principle should keep the
United States government from making laws prohibiting their 'religious'
exercise of polygamy.  Using Jefferson's address, the Court showed that
while the government was not free to interfere with opinions on religion,
which is what frequently distinguishes one denomination from another, it
was responsible to enforce civil laws according to general Christian
standards.  In other words, separation of church and state pertained to
denominational differences, not to basic Christian principles.  Therefore,
and on that basis, the Court ruled that the Mormon practice of polygamy
and bigamy was a violation of the Constitution because it was a violation
of basic Christian principles.

Nearly 70 years after the Reynolds case, in the 1947 Everson [v. Board of
Education] case, the Court excerpted eight words out of Jefferson's address
('a wall of separation between church and state') and adopted that phrase
as its new battle cry.  It announced for the first time the new meaning
of separation of church and state--a separation of basic religious
principles from public arenas.  When the Court excerpted Jefferson's words
in the Everson case, it did not bother to present the context in which
the phrase had originally been used, nor reveal that it had been applied
in an opposite manner in previous Supreme Court cases."  

David Bartion, THE MYTH OF SEPARATION, WallBuilder Press, p.41-43, 1992.


-- 
Scott Parish                |  The Truth is still the Truth      |  John 14:6
parsons@cygnus.cis.ksu.edu  |  even if you choose to ignore it.  |
Newsgroups: alt.atheism