Separation of Church and State

Written 2016

I recently reread the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers.  This election, more than any other I have experienced, was about what Americans seem to understand about our Constitution.  I reread the commentaries because I wanted to understand what our founding fathers had in mind when they wrote it and when they amended it.  I am appalled and frustrated. We seem to have come so far from center! We have extreme left and extreme right and a blend of church and state instead of separation.  We actually have people in this country who based their whole vote on abortion rights! Their ministers and pastors told them it was the only moral choice! I have several points of frustration concerning this one issue.

I believe that in order to call myself a Christian, I must follow the edicts of Christ.  I must read the Gospels, think about the words of Christ and then apply them to my life. This is my responsibility, whether my pastor agrees with me or not.  My pastor is, after all, as human as I am. It is his place to teach, to counsel, but not to tell me how I apply my Christian principles to my life.

Jefferson was clear on the background discussion that brought about the establishment clause in the first amendment which reads,  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” The phrase “separation of church and state” comes from a letter Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut.  He said, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence the 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.

During the past century, that wall of separation has been eroded until some of us live in terror of “good christians”.  E Pluribus Unum, out of many, used to be our motto on our money. Now, our money states, “In God we trust”. Our pledge of allegiance used to be for everyone but the words “Under God” were inserted during the Eisenhower administration.  We live in a country where we have Christians, Jews, Muslims, Wiccans, Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, and the list goes on and on. Our government is supposed to represent ALL of these people. “One nation, with liberty and Justice for all”!

So, then, if we separate church and state in our thinking, we need to figure out where we stand on social issues.  For each of us, our stand on social issues will have to compliment our spiritual beliefs, otherwise we will be too conflicted and therein lies, I believe, part of the anger in our country. Our vote is part of our behavior. If we are behaving in a way that doesn’t fit with our spiritual beliefs, then we feel conflicted which often manifests outwardly as anger.  Do you notice that much of the anger expressed in the past year has come from the religious right? These people believe they are “good Christians” and yet, much of what their representatives are doing and many of the laws enacted by the right, fly in the face of the words of Christ. Of course they are angry! They must aggressively defend the indefensible. The earliest Christians gave up all their worldly belongings to be a part of the church.  The “christians” in the legislature are growing richer by the day and denying an increase in minimum wage to others! Jesus said, “Heal the sick” and yet, the “christians” in the legislature are dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Jesus said, “Feed the poor”, and yet, the “christians” in our legislature are doing their best to dismantle the food stamp program! Jesus said, “Judge not, lest ye be judged” and yet, our legislature is openly vilifying those who are quietly going about their lives, causing no problems while they pray to Allah,  the Arabic word for God. If these “good christians” have read Luke 16:19-31, it’s really possible their anger comes from fear. The parable of the rich man pretty much spells out how those who have much and don’t share end up. Lazarus ended up sitting at the right hand of Abraham while the rich man ended up tormented in the place of the dead.


As I write this, I find myself feeling sorry for those “good christians” in my legislature who rob the poor while adding to the coffers of the rich.  They must be miserable. They are going against everything their Jesus stood for; all in the name of money. If they’ve read Matthew 19:16-22, they know that the Jesus they claim to follow said to the rich man who followed all of the commandments that if he would be perfect, he must sell all of his belongings and give the proceeds to the poor.  These men and women are not only not giving to the poor, they are robbing the poor to give to the rich. . The tax cuts go to the rich, while the poor pay more and more.


I do not advocate taking all the money from the rich and giving it to the poor.  What I advocate is that the rich pay their fair share. I advocate health care available to all.  I advocate clean water and air. I advocate a chance to climb the ladder of success which has been systematically eroded with Reagan’s ridiculous trickle down economics and the incomprehensible Citizen’s United decision.   


I can freely quote my cousin in this epistle because he told me he doesn’t need to read anything other than his bible.  He won’t see this. I was appalled when he told me he had to vote for President Elect Trump because he HAD to vote against abortion.  How many times have I seen that argument? I think of my own morality when I hear this. Abortions become obsolete if their is birth control for all.  And yet? Those against abortions are also dismantling Planned Parenthood where so many women get their birth control. Maybe voting liberal would have been wiser?   If their is no need for abortion, then there is no need to bring it to the legislature.


If every life is precious, which is the platform for anti abortionists, then aren’t the lives of the children drinking poisoned water precious too?  Aren’t the lives of the children living in poverty precious too? Isn’t it just as much our responsibility to make sure they have a roof over their heads and food to eat as it is to make sure they are born?  And, what about the children who will die once they no longer have access to health care? Aren’t their lives precious? What about the elderly with the wisdom they’ve garnered through 65+ years on the planet?  Without food, shelter, and health care they will die. Aren’t their lives precious? And yet, those same people who would prevent abortions based on the value of the life of the child, are dismantling social security.  How does this make sense? If we’re going to blend Church and State, and if that Church we use in the blend is the Christian church, don’t we have the mandate to feed the poor, heal the sick and provide opportunity for those less fortunate than we are?  This current legislative body only makes sense if there is no moral imperative. We cannot make these laws in the name of Christ. These laws do not follow his commands. These laws can only be made in the name of greed and I’m so incredibly frustrated!


There are a couple of issues on which I intend to spend my time and energy.  The following issues have rendered my vote ineffective and during the next 4 years, I will work to resolve them.

The Electoral College.  The final popular vote tally for the 2016 presidential election was: Clinton – 65,844,610 votes to Trump’s  62,979,636 votes.The Electoral College was formed as a compromise between election of the president by a vote by Congress and a popular vote by qualified citizens.  We’ve amended the constitution 27 times. It’s time for the 28th amendment. The Electoral College was put in place to prevent unqualified persons from being elected to the presidency by an uneducated public. As Alexander Hamilton writes in “The Federalist Papers,” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” The electoral college did not do it’s job in 2016.  It’s time for it to go. It’s time to become a democracy. We began as a Republic and we have become an Oligarchy. With one constitutional amendment, we could become a democracy.

Citizens United is a bastardization of our citizenship. In Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court held that freedom of speech prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation.The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in this case have also been extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.  What this decision did for the American Public is to give corporations the power to sway the vote of Americans. Corporations have access to money that individuals do not have. Shell oil can run a campaign of it’s own against any candidate who is vocal about environmental issues. Christian churches can and have run expensive campaigns against candidates who are pro-choice. The fairness doctrine, which required the holders of broadcast licenses to present both sides of controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was — in the Commission’s view — honest, equitable, and balanced, is now gone.  There is no longer anything in place to stop those collectives with deep coffers from slanting any election in their way. I will actively lend my support to those trying to repeal Citizens United.

I will also support any effort to insist that political elections are subject to the equal time rule which now exempts political campaigns.  It’s not a surprise that those who are not educated in the art of research were so duped by the Trump campaign when Trump garnered so much more air time that any other candidate during and after the primaries.  The news outlets, both legitimate and not, severely hampered candidates running against Trump on both sides of the aisle.

I am frustrated and I am angry; however, this election has shown me the importance of every American when it comes to protecting the freedoms we have taken for granted. The frustration and anger I feel, that I have heard from so many others, is the fuel that I needed to become more involved. It’s time for each of us to do our part to make America great again by taking steps to create the democracy we were promised and end the oligarchy we have become.