So what about “separation of church and state”? First of all, it may be of interest to note that these words cannot be found in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, or in any founding document. These words were actually written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to The Danbury Baptists Association in 1802, in response to their fear that a single denomination would be established as the national religion.2  The first amendment simply states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”3

Unfortunately, in 1947, for the first time, only eight words of Jefferson’s letter began to be used in court cases and as a result have been misused. The Supreme Court decided in 1947 that the wall of separation would be “high and impregnable” taking the words out of context and without quoting any founders or founding documents. After the case in 1947, things continued down that path quickly. So much so that in 1958 one judge warned that if the court did not stop talking about “separation of church and state” people would begin to think it was in the Constitution.4 

In 1962, prayer was removed from the schools through a court case in which the judge used zero precedents. The court simply made the announcement with no legal basis, that there would be no more prayer in school.   In 1963, World Book even noted that this case was the first time there had been a separation of church and state in education.  In 1963, two more cases not only removed Bible reading, religious classes, and religious instruction (again with no legal or historical precedent), it also reaffirmed its position on the removal of prayer from the schools even though it had done a study which determined 97% of the population was Christian! The court ruled that the 97 % must now alter their practices to accommodate the 3%.5  In 1965, they determined it was ok for a student to pray in school if it wasn’t evident that they were praying. In 1967, a 4 line nursery rhyme used by a K-5 class was declared unconstitutional because even though the word “God” was not included in the rhyme, if someone were to hear it, they might think that it was talking about God and that would be unconstitutional.6  And year after year thereafter, the free expression of religion was further hindered by the removal of the Ten Commandments from the walls of the schools. 

How has this affected our society? Since 1962-63 court decisions, there have been dramatic increases in the birth rates for unwed teen girls, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce rates, unmarried couples living together, the United States has become the world leader in violent crime, and SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores have dropped nearly 80 points from a generation ago. Prior to 1962-63, all of these statistics had remained relatively stable or even improved.7  How far we have fallen!

All of this has only occurred during the last 60 some years of our country’s history. Do you wonder what our country was like 100 or 200 years ago, or even on that historic day in Independence Hall? Let’s allow the founders of our country to speak for themselves. 

We will begin with a familiar name. Most have heard of Patrick Henry and his famous words “Give me Liberty or give me death.” But how many have read the entire speech he gave when he coined that famous phrase? In that same speech, speaking of the American Revolution then just begun, he stated, “Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.”8

Some seem to believe our founding Fathers were not Christian, but upon examining statements like the following one made by James McHenry, a signer of the Constitution, one might reconsider his opinion.

“The Holy Scriptures. . . . can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability, and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments [protections] around our institutions.”9

In his speech on July 4^th 1837, at Newburyport, John Quincy Adams asked the crowd:

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [on the Fourth of July]?”

Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?”10

John Jay, the original chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one of the three men most responsible for the constitution, stated: “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty – as well as the privilege and interest – of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”11

The founding fathers held with such conviction that Christian Principles should be in government that they placed words like these in their own state constitutions (this one is from Delaware):

“Every person appointed to public office shall say ‘I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore; and I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.’”12

In George Washington’s farewell address he stated, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity; religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars?”13

The ideological basis for our government was taken out of the Bible. For instance three branches of government from Isaiah 33:22; separation of powers Jeremiah 17:9; and church related tax exemptions Ezra 7:24. 

The early courts understood this. The founding fathers left numerous writings describing their intent and purpose for the new government, and the courts made their rulings with respect to such writings. Thirty-four percent of the founder’s quotes were directly from the Bible, and another 60 percent were taken from men who had used the Bible as the foundation for their ideas. That is a total of 94% of the founders quotes were taken either directly or indirectly from the Bible.14

For instance, in 1892, the Supreme Court’s ruling when describing America as a Christian nation was, “This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation . . . .These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people. . . . These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”15 And how many precedents did the court cite as evidence of this? The court cited 87 precedents and at that point explained it could go on to many more but found the 87 to be more than sufficient to prove the point. Quite a difference from the zero precedents used to remove prayer and Bible reading from the schools in 1962-63! 16

In 1844, when one school in America wanted to teach morality without teaching the Bible, the courts response was “Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament …be read and taught as a divine revelation in the [school] – its general precepts expounded … and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? … Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?” The court subsequently ruled that schools would teach Christianity and the Bible.17

Another statement made by the court in 1811 was “Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.”18

It may be surprising to many, but in 1799 the court said,” By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed on the same equal footing.”19

Yes, Jefferson did write of a wall of separation between church and state, but also stated in his letter that the wall would protect the church from government control unless the religious activity was a detriment to the government or the general peace and order of the public (things listed as such were things like human sacrifice, bigamy, polygamy, and the avocation of immorality or licentiousness, etc. The government would not otherwise interfere with religious practices.)

In fact, there were other cases from the past in which parties tried to separate Christian principles from our government using only those few words from Jefferson’s original letter, but were decidedly unsuccessful.   In 1853, for one of the cases, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees investigated for almost a year whether or not this was possible. The following is an excerpt from that report:

“Had the people [the Founding fathers], during the revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that revolution would have been strangled in its cradle. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect [denomination]…. In this age, there is no substitute for Christianity …. That was the religion of the founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”

And the Judiciary Committee two months later declared as follows “The great, vital, and conservative element in our system [the thing that holds our system together] is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”20

In another court case beginning in 1877, this one a lengthy 15-year battle, was another in which the plaintiffs tried to remove Christian principles from government using Jefferson’s letter. But instead of removing them, the courts used Jefferson’s letter to maintain they would continue to be a part of our government.

So today, where are those Christian principles that the founders of our country held so dear and for which they staked their very lives to defend? Where are the John Jays and Samuel Adams and George Washingtons of our time? These men were noble in their endeavors and pure in their pursuits because of the Christian principles instilled in them before the birth of this great nation. 

John Quincy Adams expressed this in these words: “The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code . . . laws essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws. Vain indeed would be the search among the writings of profane antiquity [secular history] . . . to find so broad, so complete and so solid a basis for morality as this Decalogue [Ten Commandments] lays down.”21

John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence, simply stated,

“The Ten Commandments . . . are the sum of the moral law.”22

Do we as a people govern ourselves according to the moral law, the Ten Commandments? If the answer is yes, God will surely bless this nation.   If the answer is no, the consequences are well stated by our founders.

Jefferson stated, “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis – a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? 24  Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that His justice cannot sleep forever.”25

¹ David, Barton. Original Intent. Aledo, TX: WallBuilder Press, 1997. p. 111.