Each Day Already is a Challenge

Wonder What Thomas Jefferson Really Meant

Wonder What Thomas Jefferson Really Meant
by Marilyn Mackenzie


Many people are under the mistaken notion that our founding documents use the phrase, "separation of church and state." They don't. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Our Founding Fathers didn't want the federal government "establishing a religion." They also wanted to make sure the government did not, "prohibit the free exercise" of religion.

The words, "wall of separation of church and state" were used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, in Danbury, CT in 1802. Here is part of that letter:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with solemn 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."

Jefferson was responding to a letter he had received from the Danbury Baptists, who were being subjected (locally) to persecution for their beliefs. Jefferson wrote to assure them they the government would not be adopting or establishing a religion - as had been done in England - and that they would be free to worship as they wished.

As a Christian, when I read the First Amendment, I see these things:

1) The government will not establish a religion.

2) The governmetn will not prohibit me from exercising my religion freely - and that means that if I want to hold a Bible study in my office (even if I am a government official), I should be free to do so. I also cannot insist that anyone actually attend said Bible study.

People who are not Christian read these words differently. But you really have to take into consideration who the Founding Fathers were and the beliefs they held to determine the meaning.

Some claim that Jefferson had no faith. But the closing words of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists debunk that myth:

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

(signed) Thomas Jefferson
Jan.1.1802.

It's also interesting to note that Thomas Jefferson

1) attended Divine services at the Capitol throughout his presidency and had the Marine Band play at the services

2) during his administration, began to hold church services in the War Department and the Treasury Department, thus allowing worshippers on any given Sunday the choice to attend church at either the United States Capitol, the War Department, or the Treasury Department if they so desired

3) urged local governments to make land available specifically for Christian purposes, provided Federal funding for missionary work among Indian tribes, and declared that religious schools would receive `the patronage of the government'

Does that sound like a man with no faith or one who was wanting to enforce a strict "separation of church and state" that people today consider to be right and proper? I think not.

Items one through three above were taken from House Resolution 888, which is summarized as, "Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as `American Religious History Week' for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith."

HRES 888 also reminds us that:

1) the first act of America's first Congress in 1774 was to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress in the reading of 4 chapters of the Bible;

2) Congress regularly attended church and Divine service together en masse;

3) throughout the American Founding, Congress frequently appropriated money for missionaries and for religious instruction, a practice that Congress repeated for decades after the passage of the Constitution and the First Amendment;

4) in 1777, Congress, facing a National shortage of `Bibles for our schools, and families, and for the public worship of God in our churches,' announced that they `desired to have a Bible printed under their care & by their encouragement' and therefore ordered 20,000 copies of the Bible to be imported `into the different ports of the States of the Union';

5) in 1782, Congress pursued a plan to print a Bible that would be `a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools' and therefore approved the production of the first English language Bible printed in America that contained the congressional endorsement that `the United States in Congress assembled ... recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States';

6) in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin declared, `God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? ... Without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel';

To read the House Resolution 888 and discover facts you probably never knew about including the fact that in 1870, "the Federal government made Christmas (a recognition of the birth of Christ, an event described by the U.S. Supreme Court as `acknowledged in the Western World for 20 centuries, and in this country by the people, the Executive Branch, Congress, and the courts for 2 centuries') and Thanksgiving as official holidays;...and beginning in 1904 and continuing for the next half-century, the Federal government printed and distributed The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth for the use of Members of Congress because of the important teachings it contained" click here: http://capwiz.com/afanet/webreturn/?url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c1...


To send an email to your member of Congress about supporting HRES888, click here: http://www3.capwiz.com/afanet/issues/alert/?alertid=10912441&PROCESS=Take+Action...

There are lots of facts to read and ponder over, and while you're doing that you might want to contemplate what Thomas Jefferson really meant in that letter to the Danbury Baptists. The religious heritage of our country exists and much of what we should already know is being lost as these facts are hidden from us. Our children and our grandchildren and their children and grandchildren deserve to know about that rich heritage. And yet, even as we sit here today, people are trying to re-write our country's history. In fact, they are - if you read some of the history books now being used in public schools.