by Jack Evans

Created on: April 17, 2008

Many well meaning Christians in the United States misconstrue the meaning of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Establishment and Free Exercise clause, which partially reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." to mean that the "Wall of Separation" spoke of in the letter wrote to the Danbury Baptists by Thomas Jefferson only refers to restricting Government meddling in the affairs of religion by dicta but not restricting religious intrusion into Government.

Partially quoting the United States Supreme Court case of Holy Trinity Church vs. United States (1892) opponents of the separation of church and State contend that this Country was founded on Christian principals and therefore is a Christian nation. In this case Justice David Brewer wrote in this dictum that "this is a Christian nation". However this was merely a personal opinion of Brewer and not a legal pronouncement. Brewer might of thought that his statement would be taken out of context (which is done continually by revisionist) so he elaborated on this further.

"But in what sense can [the United States] be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or the people are compelled in any manner to support it. On the contrary,Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or in name Christians. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within its borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all."

In Reynolds v. United States ( 1879) the court stated that "The [First] Amendment's purpose... was to create a complete and permanent separation of the spheres of religious activity and civil authority by comprehensively forbidding every form of public aid or support for religion."

This principal of the keeping the Church out of the affairs of Government is also embodied in that there is no religious test for holding public office; a concept that every voter and all candidates for political office should keep foremost in their minds. But this protection also extends beyond traditional religious beliefs such as Christianity to non-belief. The Free Exercise and Establishment Clause protects not only freedom of religion but freedom from religion.

A further United States Supreme Court case that brings this to light is Torcaso v. Watkins 367 U.S. In Torcaso the Supreme Court held that "Neither a State

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