You are utterly incorrect.“The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.”~James Madison, 1819, Writings, 8:432, “The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”~1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by John Adams“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 prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”~Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, 1802“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”~Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear.”~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”~Thomas Jefferson: in a speech to the Virginia Baptists (1808)“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”~James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822 “Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.”~James Madison; Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments “When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obligated to call for help of the civil power, it’s a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”~Benjamin Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780
You are utterly incorrect.“The civil government … functions with complete success … by the total separation of the Church from the State.”~James Madison, 1819, Writings, 8:432, “The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”~1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by John Adams“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 prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”~Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, 1802“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own. It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”~Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear.”~Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 10 August 1787“Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the “wall of separation between church and state,” therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.We have solved … the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.”~Thomas Jefferson: in a speech to the Virginia Baptists (1808)“And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”~James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822 “Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history.”~James Madison; Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments “When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obligated to call for help of the civil power, it’s a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”~Benjamin Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780