The Separation Of Church And State

It is beautifully ironic, I think, and completely unique among the nations, that although most of our Founding Fathers believed in the divine providence of God, prayed to the Almighty, and many were church members, they absolutely refused to yield to the pressure to bind the nation to the Christian religion by using Christian theological language in the Constitution or by otherwise making a connection. They chose instead to carefully separate church and state in section 3 of Article VI and Amendment I. That was a good thing. It was a stroke of genius. It has served us well.

As far as I know, they never gave any explanation for their decision. These are some clues, however. Because of who they were, it is obvious that the framers of the Constitution had great respect for religion and the importance of it in the lives of the people. They also understood that the state had no business having third-party involvement in a relationship that rightly belongs to God and individual persons.

In a document called, “A Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments,” which Madison wrote in opposition to Patrick Henry