IT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED

(These thoughts are added to each Sun, Tues and Thurs)

What do you think would happen if a Virginia politician today wanted references about God inserted in an important piece of legislation, or urged that the Fourth of July be made into a quasi-religious holiday? The answer is obvious. “Separation of church and State!” would be shouted from a million rooftops. The ACLU would have an attack of apoplexy.

Of course, it has already happened. It was over 200 years ago, but it happened. Thomas Jefferson wanted God stuck into the Declaration of Independence and his request was unanimously accepted on July 4, 1776. And it was Jefferson’s eventual good friend, John Adams, who thought the Fourth of July should be an occasion of joy… and worship.

Indeed, George Washington once wrote, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.”

Nor should it be forgotten that John Adams wrote, “Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand.”

Separation of church and state? It is interesting to note that the actual wording was “a wall of separation between Church and State.” And why the phrase was used is even more interesting. A group of Baptists in Connecticut had been complaining that the Congregationalists of that State were trying to make their Christian denomination the official religion for the State of Connecticut, and persecute and discriminate against the Baptists.

Back those 200 plus years ago, the question Would the United States adopt a single Christian denomination as the official religion of the U.S.? was constantly being bantered about. And Jefferson’s phrase, “Wall of Separation,” referred to that and that only. Pure and simple, he was saying only that the Congregationalists could not install themselves as an official religion in that state.
He had already made the same kind of statement as regarded Virginia’s Constitution where Episcopalians held sway.

Was there a question in his mind that this was not to be a Judeo-Christian nation with laws to be based on the Ten Commandments? Not in a million years. The courts and many politicians today say otherwise, but they are dead wrong and if they were historians, they would know it.

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