At a church group gathering discussing the Ten Commandments, part of today’s (3/3/24) Sunday readings, I made the comment that in today’s culture you are not allowed to have the Ten Commandments displayed in a public facility. Immediately one person responded that that is because of the “separation of church and state.” This is a typical response; many Americans have adopted this misleading impression that the United States Constitution has a separation of church and state: The United States Constitution does not have such separation. You will not find it in the Constitution. This refers to a misunderstanding of what is called The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Here is what it states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
What qualifies as “church” and what does not? The misunderstanding has been appropriated by many, including, the Supreme Court, in the 1947 case of Everson v Ewing Township, legal professionals such as Erwin Chemerinsky, a well-known law school dean at Cal Berkeley. The misunderstanding refers to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Church in 1802 in which he gave a sort of clarification of the Establishment Clause. Professor Robert P. George, a Constitutional law expert and professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University explains it this way:
“The separation of church and state” is a phrase that appears nowhere in the Constitution. We have heard of those words because they were written by Thomas Jefferson to a Danbury Baptist Church community in explaining our Constitution’s stance toward religion. He drew the metaphor of a “wall” of separation between church and state. The truth in what Jefferson is saying is pretty straightforward. When understood correctly, it means that the institutions of the state and the institutions of the church are separate. Under our Constitution, no political figure holds office by virtue of an ecclesiastical appointment, and no ecclesiastical figure holds office in virtue of a political appointment.”
Click here to read Professor George’s entire opinion. For another terrific explanation of the “the separation of church and state” Click here for a five-minute video by former Chapman University Law School Dean, John Eastman.
When people make this type of argument, what they are doing is claiming that something is religion when it is not. What is religion? Is the First Amendment religion? Was Jefferson’s letter religion? I don’t know of anyone who has made such an argument. Different people will define it as they wish. By calling something religion, as in the claim of the “separation of church and state,” they are putting it in a category where it can be easily dismissed without evidence, that is, arbitrarily asserted. But what can be arbitrarily asserted can be arbitrarily denied. This falls under the Principle of Reason; Non-contradiction, complete explanation, objective evidence. To argue that something falls under “religion” or "church" without objective evidence, is an egregious attempt to prove your point by creating a straw man.
Are the Ten Commandments religion? How do you define religion? Is the prohibition against killing or stealing or adultery, or not bearing false witness religion? And, if so, who would argue that they are wrong or not acceptable? The Ten Commandments are a manual for right living and a well-ordered society. They can easily fall under natural law; that is, a law written on each person’s heart. In fact, government is dependent on a such ordered society. For example, everyone would agree that stealing is wrong. If you had to prove it, steal someone’s property, and see if they disagree. Would you have less crime or more crime if a society followed the Ten Commandments?
The United States Constitution is neutral on religion. It simply states that you cannot have a state religion nor favor one religion against another. It does not prohibit having a Bible study at a public institution such as a school, as long as it is not required or done by employees of the school. If you read the article linked above by Professor George, religious activities are allowed if they are balanced and not favor one or the other and if you allow one, you must allow the other.
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