On Thomas Jefferson: The same week he wrote the letter to the Danbury Baptist Association with the infamous "wall of separation between church and state" phrase, he attended worship services in the meeting hall of the US House of Representatives. This was his custom throughout his term in office.
The separation he was talking about was more the separation of Church government -particularly denominatinal governments -from civil government. This is manifestly a GOOD THING, and is a good paraphrase of the religious freedom part of the first amendment. It is not about separating religion and religious people from public life, regardless of what the Supreme Court says. (If you think that the US Supreme Court is infallible, I have two words for you - Dred Scott)
There is a great deal of difference between having a visible Nativity scene, and being forced to kneel in worship before it.
There is little or no danger of Christians setting up a theocracy in the US. It's hard enough to get two denominations to cooperate "offically" on disaster relief, much less impose anything on anyone. We even have some denominations (including mine, unfortunately) which have bishops who want to remove Christ from the Church - nevermind Christmas. If we can ever get our acts together and do what we're called to do we'll be very suprised.
I would argue that Government imposition of secularism is itself an imposition of a specific religious view, and is incredibly divisive.
"The church is not a religion. It is not a denomination. It is not a corporation. It is a group of people with a certain belief system. Likewise, in a free republic like the one designed by our founders, the state is the people. We believe in a government "of the people, by the people and for the people."
So, what does it mean to "separate church and state" in a free republic of the people, by the people and for the people? It means to divide believers from non-believers."
Joseph Farah
"State Imposed Athesism" Frank
