Debunking the Separation of Church and State Myth

"Wall of Separation of Church and State" needs to formally join Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and Rip Van Winkle in the annals of American myths and folklore. Why?


1. Though a component of the constitution of the former USSR, the phrase is not and never has been a component of the US Constitution or any of its amendments.

2. The source for the clause is a letter written by President Thomas Jefferson 13 years after the First Amendment was added to the Constitution.

3. The intent of the original clause was to protect the church from the state, not the state from the church.


4. Its use as a "legal reference" came from a 1947 Supreme Court ruling that inappropriately and irresponsibly cited Jefferson's letter as a legal reference.

5. It would have been heresy for our nation's forefathers to remove the influence of God from government.
Organizations such as the ACLU and the Citizens United for the Separation of Church and State and closet Communists have been leveraging this radically misinterpreted and misapplied clause to marginalize Christians in the political domain, remove the Bible as an influence on American government, and transform America into a Godless, and therefore hedonistic, state.

It is so true that anything said long enough and with enough conviction, particularly as presented by our liberal, sound-bite-based mass media, becomes part of America's "truth" fabric. Nowhere is this more evident than with the concept of the "Wall of Separation of Church and State". Regardless of how many times it is said or written, the statement that there is a "Separation of Church and State" clause in the Constitution is not only misleading; it is an outright lie.

The facts:

1. There is no allusion to, much less the specific clause "wall of separation of church and state" in our nation's founding documents. A word search of the Constitution and its Amendments reveals that there are no instances of the terms "wall" or "church" and only one instance of "religious" and one of "religion". Clause 3, Article VI of the Constitution states that there will be no RELIGIOUS test required as a qualification to any office or public trust. The First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of RELIGION or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. It is striking that the clause "In order to ensure citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the USSR is separated from the state, and the school from the church." does appear as Article 124 of the constitution of the former Soviet Union.


2. Thomas Jefferson was the key author of the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, that states incidentally "that all men are endowed by their Creator [God] with certain unalienable Rights." However, while often cited as the source for this "constitutional clause", he had nothing to do with the drafting or ratification of the Constitution nor the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution that make up the Bill of Rights. The US Constitution was drafted in 1787 but the states would not ratify it until these 10 Amendments were added. The Constitution was finally ratified in 1791. Thomas Jefferson wasn't even a member of Congress during any portion of this period. From 1784 to 1789, he was a US minister to France. From 1790-1793, he was Secretary of State.

3. The context for "Wall between Church and State" has been horribly distorted!. President Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase in 1802, 13 years after Congress passed the First Amendment. It was in a response to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut. The Association had sent President Jefferson a letter expressing their concerns over the potential establishment of a single state denomination such as the Anglican church in England. In this letter, Pastor Williams wrote, "When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world......... Thomas Jefferson reused these words in his response: "I contemplate with solemn reverence the 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 used the clause to assert the need to protect the church from the state, not the state from the church!

4. In 1947, the Supreme Court inappropriately cited and used the contents of this presidential 1802 letter to justify their ruling in the Everson vs Board of Education case. Not only did the Supreme Court cite a document with no judicial authority, the clause was taken out of context and misapplied. In their ruling, the Supreme Court wrote "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach." The use of this letter to justify their ruling makes it clear that judicial activism is not a new concept!

5. Finally, any clause that would have excluded Biblical principles from becoming manifest into law would have been heresy at the time. According to David Barton who has intently researched and documented the papers of our founding fathers, 94% of our founding father's quotes came from the Bible. The Bible was an authoritative reference. As a result, most of their ideas about forming the government for this new nation originated in the Bible.

In summary, there is no evidence our Constitution's authors ever even invoked the terms "separation of church and state" and even Jefferson's use of the phrase is diametrically opposed to the manner in which it is applied by the courts today. The concept of their being an authoritative constitutional source for erecting a wall to keep religious principles out of national affairs is truly a creation meant to drive an agenda. Our nation's founders created a wonderful document in the Declaration of Independence that fully recognizes our Creator as the ultimate source of all human rights, thus power. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights that followed reinforce our entitlement to those rights.

ACLU - CHAMPION OF THE LIE - Closely related to this issue..... Most folks know that the ACLU is the banner carrier for the myth of separation of church and state. What is not well known however, is that its founders were closely affiliated with the American Communist movement. Roger Baldwin wrote the following in his Harvard Reunion Year Book 16 years after founding the ACLU, "I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produced the wealth: communism is the goal." Dr. Harry Ward, first chairman of the ACLU is the author of "Soviet Democracy" and "Soviet Spirit," two pro-Communist books which clearly show Dr. Ward's love for the Soviet system of government. A key tenant of the soviet government was a godless society.

Let's stop this madness and terminate the perpetuation and the application of this lie. Whenever we hear this distortion, we need to correct the source on the spot, particularly if that source is the mass media. God bless you and God bless America

The general mass media are coconspirators in perpetuating the myth and can hardly be counted on to disseminate truth. Therefore it is up to you to begin destroying this grave delusion by educating your family, friends, compatriots and churches to the facts.