re: #21 Charles

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association (ever wonder why so many of these groups have the word “Family” in their names?) gave a speech at the Values Voters summit, and said the idea of church-state separation began with Adolf Hitler.

Because the phrase “separation of Church and State” is not expressly written in the Constitution, these people pretend like it is some modern made-up term. But its not too hard to find the source of the phrase. It was from Thomas Jefferson in 1802.

“Believing… that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” —Thomas Jefferson to Danbury Baptists, 1802. ME 16:281