"Should Church and State Always Be Separate?"

My answer to this question is a resounding yes, but probably not for the reason you think.

When our ancestors wrote the United Stated States Constitution, they tried to think of every conceivable thing that may happen in the future, based on what they knew to be true at that moment. In good faith, they drafted what is known to us as The Bill of Rights or the Amendments, of which there are now a total of twenty-seven (27).

In the First Amendment, it states the following:

"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."

There have been many disagreements as to the meaning of this particular amendment, but to me, the meaning is crystal clear. Our Country was founded on biblical principles, by Christian men who crossed the ocean in order to preserve that religious freedom, not remove it from their lives! It is well-documented that they prayed together before each meeting and asked the Lord for guidance when deciding what the wording would be for the Constitution. James Madison, who was the chief framer of the United States Constitution said:

"We have staked the whole future of American Civilization...upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

Does it sound like it was the intention of our Founding Fathers to separate our Creator from our lives while governing the people, which is one of the most important responsibilities that one may be called to do in his/her service to others? I think not.

My interpretation of this situation is that anti-Christian liberals are trying to push their agenda for our nation, which is that it be Godless, so that our children can have freedom "from" religion, not freedom "of" religion." They would like nothing better than to destroy the roots and foundation of our great nation and replace them with Marxism, unequal justice, deceitfulness and anything that is the opposite of truth, justice, honesty and the Christian values set forth in the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution was not written to give religious content to our nation, but rather, the Constitution was intended to be and is an instrument that protects and perpetuates the already existing religious values of our nation. It would probably even come as a huge surprise to many people to discover that nowhere in the Constitution does the phrase "separation of church and state" appear. In fact, there has never been a document of state that has even proposed such a concept, but the phrase has been passed around so much, that it is as much believed as one of the gospels.

In 1947, Justice Hugo Black made a ruling with the United States Supreme Court in the case of Everson vs. Board of Education. In that ruling, Judge Black took the First Amendment clause that read: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and ruled that the absolute meaning of that clause was that any aid or benefit to religion from governmental actions is unconstitutional. As Justice Black stated, "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."

When the First Amendment was passed, it had only had two main purposes. First, was to prohibit the government from mandatorily establishing a "Church of the United States" and declaring that one particular religion be the religion of the region, such as Britain had done. This was in response to concerns expressed by some Baptist clergymen of Danbury, Connecticut in a letter that Thomas Jefferson received from them in January 1802. Jefferson answered that letter, assuring them about the "wall," which had a one-directional purpose and that was to protect the church from the state. The church should always be free to teach biblical values to the people, while at the same time keeping the government out of the church. Our ancestors crossed the ocean, founded this great Country, and fought to preserve and protect those freedoms!

Secondly, the part of the First Amendment in which many people have of late decided to disagree, is the part that had been interpreted as follows: “the government should not impede or interfere with the practice of free religion.” The voice of religion is not supposed to be removed from public debate, but protected so that each religion can have its say. The First Amendment was intended to be a safeguard so that the state has no jurisdiction over the Church, thus protecting it, but if non-believers and other First Amendment dissenters have their way, they will remove the Church from every forum and totally disestablish it.