Rewriting religious history
As I read the Public Forum letter, "Keep church, state separate" I wondered if the writer has really read the history of our nation's founding? The letter stated, "We must have a clear separation of the church and state, as our forefathers intended."
I wonder if most people know that the phrase "separation of church and state" is nowhere to be found in our Constitution or founding documents. It originated in a letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association, reassuring them that the federal government would not establish a state (sectarian) church. The wall of separation was to keep the government from interfering with the free exercise of religion, not removing religion from the public arena.
The phrase appeared in only two cases in the Supreme Court's first 150 years. It was not until 1947 in Everson v. Board of Education that the phrase's misinterpretation became the catchword for those who want to remove every semblance of religion from the public arena, public schools included.
Interestingly, President George Washington in his farewell address stated, "Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education of minds... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles."
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The letter also asked, "Whose prayer are we going to pray?" I wonder how many people know the content of the prayer that was used in the 1962 Supreme Court case that removed school prayer? The prayer went, "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country." Doesn't sound very sectarian to me.
Look at what has happened to our nation morally since our children were forbidden to pray this prayer in school.
Our nation was founded upon a belief in God. Our form of government was founded on the word of God. Those who want to deny this will have to edit our original documents and rewrite history.
Pastor Wayne Cook
Willmar
