The Wall Of Separation

 This is copied from the bulletin from Calvary Baptist Church on 472 Ocean Rd in Portsmouth NH. The bulletin is dated 07/14/2024. 


The Wall Of Separation

        In modern times, there is a considerable amount of confusion about the idea that America has a 'wall of separation between the church and the state'. Some people erroneously believe that the separation of church and state means that Christians should essentially never express their views in public, that only secular ideas have a place in the public square. Though modern secularists may prefer this interpretation, it has no foundation in American history.

        More than 200 years ago, the Danbury Baptist Convention was concerned that the newly formed federal government might attempt to interfere with their freedom of worship, and the expressed their concerns to President  Thomas Jefferson. After all, in the colonists home nation of England, the government often forced churches to reflect the religious preferences of the monarch. Jefferson wrote a letter to assure the Convention that the Constitution did not allow the federal government to intervene in church affairs, saying that a 'wall of separation' had been erected between church and state.

        Jefferson's letter was written to say that the federal government could not force certain religious views on citizens, not to say that religious expression in public was prohibited. Any  other interpretation of 'separation of church and state' is erroneous.


2024 / 07 / 27









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