by Brian Botdorf

Created on: February 20, 2010   Last Updated: February 28, 2010

The case for separation of church and state

Looking back on the history of the Church in Europe and the power alliances they had with Kings, one can understand why our founding fathers wanted a separation of church and state. The religious “pendulum” of influence and power, swung back and forth with Kings and Bishops of Catholic and Protestant faith. 

Our founding fathers saw how failure to adhere to the “favored” religion could often lead to great danger, torture, imprisonment and execution. They witnessed how the church would cease land in the name of god. How the church could gain power and use its influence with the kings of the same secular beliefs.  

There is no doubt that our founding fathers were very religious, but they were also very wise. They left England to escape religious persecution, to create a great nation guided by intelligence and with history as their greatest guide.

The denominations of our founding fathers were many and they realized that those in the minority could suffer the same fate as those in England. Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “The opinions of men are not the object of civil Government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys religious liberty.” 

James Madison wrote, “In the matters of religion, no man’s rights is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance". He also wrote, “True it is, that no other rule exist, by which any question which may divide a society, can be ultimately determined, by the will of the majority, that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority.” 

Our founding fathers were very wise men. They understood the history of the church in England. They saw how corrupt it could become. How the majority could “trespass” on the will of the minority. 

They saw how corrupt Bishops in power with kings created a cynicism for religion and government. Madison even wrote that, “Religion flourishes in great purity without the aid of Government.” 

We, as a nation of many beliefs, must respect all other beliefs even though they may be in the minority. Government is an institution of the people of all creeds. History is our greatest teacher. Those that study history and learn from the mistakes of the past, will not repeat them. 

To say that our founding fathers were religious and therefore we have a right to institute religion into government, is no different from what the Kings and Bishops did in England. E pluribus Unum means melting pot. We as a nation are a melting pot of many religions and ethnicities. 

Christianity may not always be in the majority and may suffer the fate of those in the minority some day. This is why government must be neutral. Being in the majority does not give the right to will a set of beliefs on those in the minority.

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