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The Wall of Separation

Started by jameslbrown, 01/12/2012 05:44PM
Posted 01/12/2012 05:44PM Opening Post
The "Wall of Separation between Church and State" came up in "Politics" this morning.

http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=778083&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

This is a perennial favorite political issue and will certainly come up in some fashion during this year's election campaign. In deference to Herb's itchy trigger finger I thought I ought to put any comments here. The wall of separation does after all squarely deal with the interface between politics and religion.

Anyway,

As a fundamental starting point,I believe the "the wall of separation" is now a generally accepted metaphor for the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. The metaphor has no meaning or enforceability beyond the 1st Amendment. Anyone who thinks that a separately enforcible "wall of separation" restricts government action above and beyond the limits set by the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses is wrong.

So, as a starting point, in 2012, "The wall of separation" is useful shorthand to refer to the huge body of Constitutional law regarding the relationship between church and state.

Even so, the concepts behind this phrase and the phrase itself are laced throughout the many cases developing the actual Constitutional law of the 1st Amendment. The concepts behind the phrase were known and considered when the Bill of Rights was drafted. In other words, the history of the phrase and what it has been thought to mean has in fact shaped our evolving interpretation of the 1st Amendment. Therfore, even though the phrase "a wall of separation between Church and State" is not in the Constitution, the history, historical context and thought behind that phrase are critical to understanding the 1st Amendment and case law that defines the scope of the 1st Amendment.

Amazingly, this month's Smithsonian Magazine has a detailed article about the historical originations of both the phrase and the concept. I see that the online version even has interactive timelines. I have not read this yet (it's sitting on my desk at home) but Smithsonian is usually very very good:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/God-Government-and-Roger-Williams-Big-Idea.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/multimedia/videos/Church-and-State-The-Debate.html

Jim