Ben Thompson
Church & state
By Ben Thompson
For many years the issue of the relationship between church and state has been a controversial one.
Should public schools allow the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited? Should public prayers be allowed at school athletic events or during legislative sessions? Should the words "In God We Trust" appear on our currency and coins? Should the Ten Commandments be displayed on public property? Do school children have the right to offer a silent prayer or keep a Bible in the classroom?
The church and state issue has its roots in the very founding of our nation. What would our Founding Fathers tell us if they were alive today?
What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he used the term "separation of church and state?"
On October 7, 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association penned a letter to President Thomas Jefferson about their concerns that the State of Connecticut was passing legislation to regulate religion.
In his Jan. 1, 1801, response Jefferson wrote, "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that the act of the whole people (Constitution) which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, ..."
In his letter Jefferson quoted from the First Amendment verbatim that the legislature should "make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Clearly he was saying that the state should make no laws that interfere with the right of the people to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience.
Jefferson wrote nothing about the influence of religion upon government. But there can be little doubt about how Jefferson and other founders felt on that subject.
One of Jefferson's deepest ambitions after leaving the presidency was to establish a model public university side by side with an institution of religious learning.
Jefferson himself refutes the false claims that he was an atheist: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
Other founders and Congress itself made their beliefs clear concerning the place of religion in government and schools:
John Quincy Adams: "The highest glory of the American Revolution is this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of government with the principles of Christianity."
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number one was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies, is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
George Washington: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
Unfortunately, many modern elitists think they know more about church and state issues than did our Founding Fathers. And even more sadly many uninformed Americans naively believe these so-called experts.
It is the profound responsibility of each American to study the issues, to be aware of the original intent of our founders, to speak out and to vote based on the true principles upon which this nation was founded.
© Ben Thompson
For many years the issue of the relationship between church and state has been a controversial one.
Should public schools allow the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited? Should public prayers be allowed at school athletic events or during legislative sessions? Should the words "In God We Trust" appear on our currency and coins? Should the Ten Commandments be displayed on public property? Do school children have the right to offer a silent prayer or keep a Bible in the classroom?
The church and state issue has its roots in the very founding of our nation. What would our Founding Fathers tell us if they were alive today?
What did Thomas Jefferson mean when he used the term "separation of church and state?"
On October 7, 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association penned a letter to President Thomas Jefferson about their concerns that the State of Connecticut was passing legislation to regulate religion.
In his Jan. 1, 1801, response Jefferson wrote, "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that the act of the whole people (Constitution) which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, ..."
In his letter Jefferson quoted from the First Amendment verbatim that the legislature should "make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Clearly he was saying that the state should make no laws that interfere with the right of the people to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience.
Jefferson wrote nothing about the influence of religion upon government. But there can be little doubt about how Jefferson and other founders felt on that subject.
One of Jefferson's deepest ambitions after leaving the presidency was to establish a model public university side by side with an institution of religious learning.
Jefferson himself refutes the false claims that he was an atheist: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus."
Other founders and Congress itself made their beliefs clear concerning the place of religion in government and schools:
John Quincy Adams: "The highest glory of the American Revolution is this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of government with the principles of Christianity."
In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools."
Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number one was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the scriptures: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies, is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
George Washington: "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."
Unfortunately, many modern elitists think they know more about church and state issues than did our Founding Fathers. And even more sadly many uninformed Americans naively believe these so-called experts.
It is the profound responsibility of each American to study the issues, to be aware of the original intent of our founders, to speak out and to vote based on the true principles upon which this nation was founded.
© Ben Thompson
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