Let's Remember Jefferson

"To think that we can save the Constitution without God's help when the government of the United States is corrupt is absurdity. We are in America's second Revolutionary War to save our freedom, which we paid for with blood. We need God's help and I'm not ashamed to ask for it."

-- Rex Rammell, Republican candidate for governor in Idaho. Go to the article...

I saw this on Andrew Sullivan's blog, which he posted without comment. But it seems worthy of some contemplation.

I hope no one falls for Rammell's appeal to imaginary persecution and strife. However, I know how prone Christians - especially fundamentalist Christians - are to such rhetoric.

In his speech, he also proclaims that "he disagrees with people seeking separation of church and state," and that he's "'tired' of people telling him he can't bring God into his campaign speeches."

The principle of the separation of church and state usually begins with Thomas Jefferson (and this is a very good place to begin). In 1779 he wrote the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, and in 1786 it passed in Virginia's legislature.

In an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, Jefferson articulated the famous phrase that has become our principle: "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."

Several Supreme Court Justices have cited this statement in support of this principle.

Why is the separation of church and state important?

If one religion is favored by a government, over time, other religions and beliefs systems tend to be discriminated against. We can see this in history, and in Islamic theocracies today, where it is illegal to adhere to a religion other than Islam. For a person to be taxed, persecuted, or to face social pressures because of believing something other than the state or popular religion is morally repugnant.