Our Founding Fathers, America Today

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Our founding fathers never intended for the church to be separated from our government the way it is today. The original phrase from the constitution "Congress shall make no law respecting as establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" only means that congress cannot establish a national religious denomination, such as Catholicism, Christianity, or any other denomination.

Yet, anytime religion is even just mentioned within the government today, people cry, "Separation of church and state!" About 67% of Americans now believe that this statement appears in the first amendment of the Constitution. However, the words "Separation", "Church", and "State" do not appear at all in the first amendment! The first amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The phrase "separation of church and state" actually comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802.

It was never intended for our government to be separated from Christianity and its principles. The "wall" between church and state was designed as one directional; its purpose was to protect the church from the state. The government would not be able to corrupt the church, but the church was free to teach biblical principles to the people. The founding fathers of our country took ideas from the Bible and incorporated them into our government. If they had meant to separate church and state they never would have put Biblical principles in the foundation of our government. To say Biblical principles should not be allowed in government is to either be ignorant of the founding fathers' intent, or to be blatantly opinionated against Christianity. The aim of our founding fathers was not to completely separate the church and state, but to keep the state from controlling the church. The government's purpose was to protect the church, not to disestablish it. Our founders built this country and kept it running well for more than two centuries, so shouldn't we continue to follow their original plans?