The phrase “wall of separation between church and state” comes from Thomas Jefferson who, in a letter the Danbury Baptists in Conn., promises the Baptists that they will be able to practice their faith free of government control. In erecting this wall, the Baptists’ faith would be kept pure, given protection from political intrusion. It would also keep the government from using religion in to make some individuals second class citizens.

This value of separation grows–directly–out of harassment by the Congregational Church on Baptists and Quakers. It also grows out of the religious wars of Europe arising during the time of Reform following Martin Luther. The hope was that a wall would prevent religious warfare, disenfranchisement, and protect the purity of religious practices.

As an aside– people talk about this being a “Christian” nation. Perhaps we can point to all the colonies and say, “They were Christians,” but history tells us that they were hardly unified under that banner. These colonies began to make a profit or to escape religious discrimination. They did not begin under some unified notion of prayer in school, bible readings at graduations, etc. The “founders” of our country were diests, atheists, protestants, catholics, etc., all of whom would significantly disagree on major issues. In light of their common European history, they added the First Amendment to prevent intrusion of a fed. gov. into their various religious practices.

Well, it’s late, and I’m tired, so–goodnight.