Church v State

The separation of church and state is one of many social and political breakthroughs that resulted from the Enlightenment, aka the Age of Reason, in the 17th and 18th Centuries.  It forms the cornerstone Americans cherish;; it’s the essential difference between life in the developed world versus countries that are racked by ISIS, the Taliban, and other oppressive regimes.

Until very recently, with the advent of fanatical Christianity and the intrusion of the evangelicals into the American political scene, the separation of church and state was not only enshrined into the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but it stood at the core of what it meant to be a citizen of our nation.

At left are the words of a 19th Century president, one who was perhaps not gifted with the intellectual  horsepower of some of his predecessors, e.g., Thomas Jefferson, but a man who still hold onto this fundamental truth that almost everyone, until the last few years, held quite dear to our hearts.

Now, evangelical Christians are doing everything in their power to ensure that our schoolchildren are taught to worship Jesus, a concept that would have made our Founding Fathers turn over in their graves.