The Separation of Church and State Myth revisited, again.

Nowhere in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence or any other founding era document will you find the phrase ‘separation of church and state’.

In fact, the only place it appears is in a letter President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association. In that letter, Jefferson said the Constitution builds a wall of separation between church and state, allaying the Danbury Baptist’s fear that the government would take away their right to free worship of their religion. (Read David Barton’s article in the November 2003 issue of the Notre Dame Law Review for more information)

Jefferson’s letter was used in its entirety as a defense of the freedom of religion until 1947, when Supreme Court justice Hugo Black lifted the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ from the letter mentioned above and twisted it to produce the lie that government should be devoid of religious influences. And after several generations of the government sewing this lie into the public’s psyche, the people believe it so completely that some are even willing to resort to violence to prevent anyone else from spreading the truth about it.

Which brings us to another lie, that of a godless Constitution.

There was extensive research done on who influenced our founding documents. (The book is The Origins of American Constitutionalism by Donald Lutz)

The results were revealed as follows: Montesquieu, 8.3%; Blackstone, 7.9%; John Locke, 2.9% and the Bible, 34%.

In fact, here are some parts of the Constitution and their corresponding Biblical references.

Art 1 Sec. 8 Uniform immigration – Leviticus 19:34

Art. 2 Sec. 1 Natural born President – Deuteronomy 17:15

Art. 3 Sec. 3 Attainder – Ezekiel 18:20

Separation of Powers – Jeremiah 17:9

Three branches of government – Isiah 33:22

Tax-exemption for Church – Ezra 7:24

Republicanism – Exodus 18:21

The oath of office, which many cite as being violated and that enforcing it is the way to fix this country, was in fact originally a promise to God (or the official’s higher power of choice). Which makes sense since so many political decisions and deals are made far from the sight of the public.

If the oath were to man, there would have been some punishment associated with it, there is not.

Also, why is the Constitution signed “...in the year of our Lord….” if its a godless document?

There are many other myths about the Constitution and the founders that need to be cleared up.