Separation of Church And State
Became
Separation of God And State

If there's one thing Americans are up on it's separation of church and state. Buddy, you're treading on thin ice if you even breathe the name of God in a government institution.

If you don't believe it just ask the ACLU -- the separation police. The Almighty has been put on notice in no uncertain terms: when it comes to civil government it's strictly "hands-off."

On the other hand, a bit of a double-standard seems to have come into play over the years. Those touchy fellows over on the government side don't seem to have any qualms at all about meddling in the affairs of the church. Imagine that.

In fact they've insisted on setting up shop as Creator of the church via incorporation. A corporation by definition is a creature of the state, right? Of course, the church hasn't put up much resistance, exchanging its corporate soul for a tax deduction.

There's a lot that could be said along those lines. Better save it for another page.

The terms of the debate over separation of church and state were framed in Virginia about a year before the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

Thomas Jefferson was upset by state requirements that officials commit to government under God. In his 1782 Notes on Virginia he complained that “By our own act of Assembly of 1705, if a person brought up in the Christian religion denies the being of God, or the Trinity, or asserts there are more gods than one, or denies the Christian religion to be true, or the Scriptures to be of divine authority, he is punishable…by incapacity to hold any office….” Elsewhere he referred to this as “religious slavery.”

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were also upset with the establishment of the Anglican Church in Virginia, and rightly so. For civil government to pay the salaries of Christian ministers is an improper violation of the separation of church and state. It can lead to nothing other than control of the church by the state. This is legitimate separation of church and state.

Jefferson declared “that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern….” So far, so good.

But, in their 1786 “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom” Jefferson and Madison went beyond separation of church and state to separating God and state. They first declared that, “our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry….”

Then they very subtly forbade the requirement that the civil magistrate be required to swear allegiance to God and the Bible. In the same long sentence that disestablished the Anglican Church, the Bill declared (quote) “that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” (end of quote) Note carefully the words, “their opinions in matters of religion…shall in no wise diminish…their civil capacities.”

However, law is always based on religion even as government is always based on law. This has nothing to do with the separation of church and state as unique institutions under God. Because law is always an expression of somebody’s belief system or religion, the new enactment meant that the Christian footing was removed and the government of Virginia was now based – by default -- on atheism.

Having established this precedent in Virginia, James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, carried the same principle into the U.S. Constitutional convention in 1787, just over a year later. Article I, Section 3 reads:

No religious test shall ever be required for any office or public trust under these United States -- Article VI, Section 3b.

Instead officials are required to swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution alone, thus cutting off all appeal to the higher law of God in the Bible. Religious matters are allegedly left to the states.

For the time being the individual states retained the right to require their officers to take a religious oath to govern in accordance with the Bible. However, the national precedent was established and was extended to the states with the passage of the 14th Amendment after the Civil War.

Finally, in Torcaso v. Watkins: (1961) The states (Maryland leading the way) were forbidden to require a religious oath of any of their officials, including notary public, the lowest public office of any state.

Many – possibly a majority – of the strongest Christians of the Constitutional era opposed ratification for this very reason. For example, an anti-federalist in North Carolina wrote:

The exclusion of religious tests is by many thought dangerous and impolitic…Pagans, Deists, and Mahometans might obtain office among us.”

Modern authors, Frank Rexford and Clara Carson, have noted that “Every official in the United States … is on oath to uphold the Constitution. Religion, however, can never have anything to do with the question of eligibility of an officeholder in the United States.” This is separation of church and state with a vengeance.

Virtually everyone accepts the wisdom of this arrangement. What would happen to the rights of an unbeliever under a Christian government where the religious oath to govern according to the Bible is required? Would he not be persecuted and oppressed?

On the contrary, although the “stranger” in ancient Israel was not allowed to participate in civil government, he was guaranteed equal protection under the law. “One law shall be to him that is home born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Ex. 12:49). The stranger was always listed with the widow and orphan as a class worthy of special protection in the Old Testament. Moreover, in Exodus 22:23-24 God promised to curse any Israelite who would be so callous as to “afflict them in any wise.”

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