Separation of Church and State, part 2

Separation of Church and State, part 2

The concept of separating the affairs of government from the affairs of religion, and vice versa, is intended to prevent the government from ruling the church and the church from ruling the government.

The writers of our constitution were only one or two generations removed from governments in England which had been ruled by monarchs who variously promoted the power of the Catholic church or the Protestant church over the laws of the land. Heirs to the throne fought each other because one wanted the state to be Catholic and one wanted the state to be Protestant (James II vs William III c. 1688). The Protestant, William III, won and Parliament subsequently passed a law that no Catholic, or anyone married to a Catholic, could become the monarch.

America’s founders, as do some present day folks, failed to be objective enough. They put into the constitution that “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion--”, meaning that there
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