Monday, December 12, 2011

Thomas Jefferson - PSA

Apparently, candidates for the Republican nomination, all of whom claim reverence for the Founding Fathers, do not agree with Thomas Jefferson's philosophy regarding separation of church and state. In an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association Thomas Jefferson made his views on separation of church and state crystal clear:

Thomas Jefferson on Separation of Church and State
'Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & 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 & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.'

Panderbear wonders if the Religious Right has any idea how far they have departed from the ideals of their professed historical heroes or just how dangerous blurring the line between church and state really is.

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