The Truth about Separation of Church and State

Recently, several cases have come before the federal courts concerning religious speech and expression. These cases have exposed the confusion and misrepresentation of the First Amendment on behalf of the cultural left.
The phrase "separation of church and state" has come to be interpreted by the cultural left as a separation from religious speech in the public arena. This is completely contrary to what the First Amendment states.
The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees all Americans the freedom of speech, religion, press, petition and assembly, has this to say about religious speech: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
Simply put, no religion will be established by the state as an official religion of the nation, nor will the American people be denied the free expression of their religious beliefs. Yet, that is what is happening in America today. Everywhere we turn these days Americans who simply express their religious beliefs in an open society are constantly being targeted by employers, school officials, college professors and the media for simply engaging in their Constitutional liberties.
A practice of religious intolerance has been the norm for at least a generation and a half in America. Take for example the complaints filed with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a religious liberty legal organization in Washington, D.C. Each year, thousands of Americans seek the ACLJ's assistance in defending their First Amendment liberties.
During a Rally Around The Flag event in Alabama a few years ago, a group of high school students voluntarily held hands and prayed around their school’s flagpole. For this the students were handcuffed and hauled to jail.
What has happened to America? Ours is a nation founded by British colonials seeking religious tolerance. How have so many Americans become so disillusioned as to think any religious speech in the public forum is actually a violation of the First Amendment?
The confusion concerning the First Amendment began with a case in 1947. In Everson vs. The Board of Education, Justice Black, an FDR appointee, rewrote the Constitution and set in motion an un-Constitutional precedent that has undermined all of our freedoms.
Justice Black took a phrase used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote to the Danville Baptist church in Virginia and used that phrase: "separation of church and state", to undermine the free speech rights of all Americans. The most interesting thing about Jefferson's use of that phrase is its true meaning.
Jefferson used this phrase as nothing more than a euphemism to express the First Amendment’s role as a preserver of free speech, not a censor of free speech as Judge Black re-interpreted it to be. Jefferson said he believed there was a "wall of separation" keeping the government from interfering in the affairs of the church, not to keep people of faith out of the political arena. Furthermore, that euphemism is Jefferson’s own opinion, not Constitutional law. The Supreme Court said so in Lynch vs. Donnelly (1984).
Again, we see the Supreme Court reinforcing the true nature of the First Amendment in the Mergens vs. West Side School (1990) case. The Supreme Court upheld the rights of all students to voluntarily pray in school; provided the government, including government paid officials (i.e. teachers, counselors) did not coerce that prayer.
It is for this reason Madeline Murray O’Hare was able to win her Supreme Court case in 1962. The Maryland school district her son attended made prayer a mandatory practice. The Supreme Court did not ban the free exercise of religion in this case, although that has come to be the spin used by the cultural left. The Supreme Court simply upheld the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The propaganda concerning the First Amendment is staggering. Each year thousands of students are suspended, harassed, receive lower grades on their term papers, or even arrested for simply expressing their deeply held religious beliefs in the public forum. This is a direct result of the schizophrenic use of Jefferson's phrase “separation of church and state”.
The religious practice of Americans is the choice of each citizen and cannot be censored. The government cannot mandate religious practice, nor can the government deny that same practice. That is the balance of powers spelled out in the First Amendment by our nation’s founders.