Hi Holden,
Originally posted by Holden McGroin
The wall of seperation was brought up in letters of Jefferson to a church congregation (In VA I think) and was meant to explain the 1st amendments meaning that the government would not require you to confrom to any official religious dogma.
The Letter was sent to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, in response to a letter of concern sent by them to Jefferson shortly after his inauguration (
a copy of their letter is available here ). Jefferson's letter reads:
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
A little background will help to understand their concern and Jefferson's reply.
The Baptists in America were at this time still a religious minority, and in the past they had suffered considerable persecution both in New England from the Congregationalists who were zealous to maintain one form of Reformed Protestant religion in those colonies, and prior to the revolution at the hands of the state governments which supported the established church, namely the Church of England, with tax revenues and which did all that the could to discourage the spread of "dissenting churches" throughout the colonies.
Following the Revolution, the general opinion in the state of Conecticut was that the rights of the Baptists to freedom of religion were conferred by the state, and thus
alienable. Alienable rights can be revoked, and the fear of the Baptists was that at some point an act of the legislature might do just that. Jefferson wrote to assure them that the rights of all Americans to freedom of religion (note
"of" not
"from") were guaranteed and thus
inalienable.
In context, therefore, Jeffersons phrase seldom has much to do with the use it is put to in the modern era.
- SEAGOON
(Man I feel sick, apologies for any typos)
