One Nation Under God?

Separation of Church and State?

The first amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..."

The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted by the first U.S. Congress in 1791. The first amendment went through extensive discussions and nearly a dozen drafts. They show the intent of the founding fathers -- that they didn't want one denomination running the nation. They did, however, believe Christianity and biblical principles should be a part of American life.

The courts clearly recognized this. For example, in a unanimous 1799 decision, the Maryland Supreme 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, and are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty" (William Federer, America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, 1996, p. 422).

In 1801 a Danbury, Connecticut, Baptist church wrote to President Thomas Jefferson after hearing a rumor that Congregationalism was to be made the national religion. Jefferson wrote back assuring them that the first amendment built "a wall of separation between church and state."

For a century and a half, the clear understanding of the first amendment was that it prohibited establishing a single national denomination. It was to keep government out of religion, not the other way around. Policies and rulings reflected that understanding.

For example, in 1854 a report of the House of Representatives judiciary committee stated: "At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and its amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect [denomination] ... In this age, there is no substitute for Christianity ... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants" (David Barton, America's Godly Heritage video, 1993).

The same committee later stated that "the great vital and conservative element in our system [the component that conserves and holds our system together] is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ" (Barton).

In the 1870s a group tried to have specific Christian principles removed from government. The courts cited Jefferson's letter not to support that removal, but to prove that it was permissible to maintain Christian values, practices and principles in official policy. For the next 15 years during that controversy, the courts used Jefferson's letter to insure that Christian principles remained a part of government.

Jefferson's letter was then largely ignored until 1947 when, in the case of Everson v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court quoted Jefferson's letter. However, they only quoted his phrase about separation of church and state, not the context. They wrote: "The first amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable."

This was a new philosophy for the courts. The phrase began to be used repeatedly as an indication of the wishes and intent of the founding fathers. In 1962 the Supreme Court made its first ruling (Engel v. Vitale) which completely separated Christian principles from education when it struck down school prayer. The case was over the use of a voluntary, 22-word nondenominational prayer in school: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country."

This prayer only acknowledged God once. It didn't mention Jesus Christ. The prayer acknowledged God as many times as the Pledge of Allegiance. The Declaration of Independence acknowledges God four times. But somehow this prayer was unconstitutional!

In this 1962 case the court redefined the meaning and application of the word "church." Before this time the court had defined "church" as being a federally established denomination. Observes David Barton: "Now the word was redefined to mean any religious activity performed in public. Now the first amendment would not simply prohibit establishing a federal denomination, it would prohibit religious activities in public settings."

School prayer was the first casualty of this new definition. Engel v. Vitale was the first case in Supreme Court history to use zero court precedents! Within 12 months, in two more court cases, they removed Bible classes and religious instruction from public schools. In explaining their reasoning, the court stated: "If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and ... had been psychologically harmful to the child ..." (Barton). This was the second time in a year that the court issued a ruling without any legal precedent being cited for its decision.

The courts continued to expand their "separation" doctrine in subsequent years. In 1967 the court even declared a four-line nursery rhyme unconstitutional in a kindergarten class. Why? Because, though the word "God" was not mentioned, if someone were to hear the rhyme he might think it was talking about God. So out it went.

Subsequent court rulings have gone so far as to declare it unconstitutional for a copy of the Ten Commandments to hang in a school hallway and for teachers to have a Bible visible on their desks. We increasingly no longer have freedom of religion, but rather freedom from religion.