By Lt. Col. Allen West (ret.) | Commentary, American Civil Rights Union
You often hear leftists rant on about the “separation of church and state,” with the goal being the separation of America’s Judeo-Christian faith heritage from itself. There can be no doubt that faith heritage played an integral part in the founding of our Constitutional Republic. What Thomas Jefferson really meant when he wrote that letter to the Danbury Baptist Convention of Connecticut was to calm any concerns that the Baptists had that the Presbyterians would be the official “religion” of America. Jefferson knew very well of the lesson from England of King Henry VIII. Who, when denied a divorce by the Catholic Church, created his very own religion and persecuted those who did not worship him as both Head of State and Head of Church. That even included his most trusted advisor, Thomas More, who was beheaded.
The whole concept of separation of church and state was intended to preclude the government in America, these United States, from ever creating a state-sponsored religion. It had nothing to do with preventing the “freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof.”
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