The Wall is Tumbling Down

In the first amendment of the Constitution, there are two clauses that have traditionally been recognized as creating a "wall of separation between church and state".

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion  -- read More

and

 ... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...  read More

But  it was Jefferson who actually first used the phrase in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. The letter contains the phrase "wall of separation between church and state." The phrase is now used as short-hand way of referring to the Establishment Clause.  read More


Jefferson himself admired the teachings of Jesus, but, as a man of the enlightenment, he couldn't stand the biblical references to miracles and supernatural events.  They bothered him so much that he wrote his own version of the New Testament.  read More

Jefferson apparently couldn't stand the overbearing demands to conform that permeated religious communities of his day.  He was, one might say, a free thinker.  He obviously preferred secular reasoning be used in matters of governance.


In the privacy of one's own mind, people should be free to "believe" as they want.  But no religiously motivated agenda from an outside source should be imposed on another against their will.


Nine of the original 13 colonies had official religions.  Though most of the founding fathers were deist, they worried that a religion might gain a disproportionate influence if religion were left unchecked in the wider public arena of governance. In their day, the word "secular" didn't carry the negative connotations that it does today.


Ironically, the true danger to our constitutionally guaranteed right to free thought (freedom of religion) doesn't come from the all inclusive secular community but from a more narrowly defined religious agenda.


No one can any longer believe that politicians are merely leveraging voters by wrapping themselves in a mantle of religiosity.  It is an all out cultural war.  And it is a war started by the religious right to defeat secular reason.  The history of this war goes back several decades and it may have, in fact, always been present here in America, perhaps from even before the Constitution was adopted.


And it is clear that the GOP backs the "Culture War" against our secular system of government.  read More