Since the assassination of Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk, many have begun attending Church services and even started taking ground in politics.
But with this comes a controversial subject and is thus one of the reasons men of faith are shy when it comes to being active in politics – Separation of Church and State!
Many have used this phrase to mean that Christianity and Government don’t mix - they are separate and have no part with each other!
Where does this phrase come from? Many will say it’s in the First Amendment of our Constitution, which simply states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Notice the phrase is not used in the First Amendment nor is it in any of the founding documents. While many use and repeat the phrase “Separation of Church and State,” very few actually know where it comes from and what it actually means.
First, let me talk about the First Amendment.
The process of drafting the First Amendment made the intent of the founding fathers very clear, because before they approved the final wording, the First Amendment went through nearly a dozen different iterations and many long discussions.
These discussions, recorded in the Congressional Records from June 7th through September 25th of 1789, make clear their intent for the First Amendment. By it, they were saying, “We do not want in America what we had in Great Britain; we don’t want one denomination running the nation. We will not all be Catholics, or Anglicans, or any other single denomination. We do want God’s principles, but we don’t want one denomination running the nation.”
And this was well understood at the time as evidenced by court rulings after the First Amendment. For example, a 1799 court declared:
“By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing.”
Now, in 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, CT heard a rumor that the Congregationalist denomination was about to be made the national denomination. That rumor distressed the Danbury Baptists, so they wrote a letter to President Jefferson about their concern. On January 1st, 1802, Jefferson wrote the Danbury Baptists, assuring them “the First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between church and state.” Thus, we have the origin of the phrase.
His letter explained that they need not fear the establishment of a national denomination – and that while the wall of the First Amendment would PROTECT the CHURCH from GOVERNMENT CONTROL – there always would be open-free religious expression of all orthodox religious practices, for true religious duties would never threaten the purpose of government. The government would interfere with a religious activity only if that activity was a direct menace to the government or the well-being of society - examples of such practices are cannibalism, witchcraft, human sacrifice, etc.
I hope this sheds light on the fact that Christians have a right to have influence in our government.
God bless!
Gabriel Silliman
La Center
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