At the time of the (nation’s) founding, all states required office-holders to be Christian. Over a third of the states levied taxes to support the established church in that state. In the Colonial era, most colonies fined people for not attending church.
And yet, the left likes to pretend “separation of church and state” was the vision of the founders.
Even Thomas Jefferson’s late-in-life letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, which introduced the phrase, is not referring to the absence of religion from government; it is referring to the necessity of preventing the government from meddling in the affairs of denominations or coercing the conscience of the individual toward a particular faith.
In other words, even Jefferson didn’t contemplate barring religion and religious observance from the public square. As president, Jefferson himself attended a federally supported church, held IN the Capitol building, every Sunday without fail.
Rob Kerchner
Santa Clarita
