Rob Boston: Trump Adviser Unleashes Error-Filled Attack On Separation Of Church And State – YubaNet

July 29, 2020 During a recent campaign event, Jenna Ellis, an adviser to President Donald Trump, cut loose with the old Religious Right chestnut that separation of church and state isnt part of the Constitution.

The left is going to tell you theres this separation of church and state, and thats just nowhere in the Constitution, nowhere in American law,Ellis said during a Zoom meetinghosted by Asian Pacific Americans for Trump. Thats nothing that our founding principles ever, uh, derived whatsoever.

She added that church-state separation comes from twisting a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Church that was simply talking about the three tiers of authority that God himself ordained the church government, the civil government, and the family government.

Ellis would have done well to actually readJeffersons letterto the Danbury, Conn., Baptist Association before popping off on it because that famous missive doesnt say what she seems to think it does. The Daily Beast helpfully pointed out what Ellis got wrong and even quoteda blog postby Americans United Assistant Director of Communications Liz Hayes making it clear that key founders like Jefferson and James Madison supported separation of church and state. (Madison, it is worth noting, was one of the primary authors of the Constitutions religious freedom protections, which were inspired by JeffersonsVirginia Statute for Religious Freedom.)

History is important, but theres another reason why the term separation of church and state came into existence: Its a convenient way of explaining what the religious freedom provisions of the First Amendment do.

The first 16 words of the First Amendment are, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. People who work in the legal community call the first part of that the Establishment Clause and the second part the Free Exercise Clause.

These are not terms that smoothly roll off the tongues of non-lawyers, though. Even in pre-Twitter days, people often looked for shortcuts when communicating complex ideas. The phrase separation of church and state nicely summarizes the scope and effect of the First Amendment.

In his classic bookChurch, State and Freedom, eminent church-state scholar Leo Pfeffer put it well. Pfeffer noted that the literal words separation of church and state dont appear in the Constitution but added, But it was inevitable that some convenient term should come into existence to verbalize a principle so clearly and widely held by the American people.

Pfeffer pointed out that the phrases fair trial and religious liberty are found nowhere in the Constitution, yet few would doubt that our founding charter protects those principles. He wrote, The universal acceptance which all these terms, including separation of church and state, have received in America would seem to confirm rather than disparage their reality as basic American principles.

Pfeffer was right. Separation of church and state is an American principle. We pioneered it, and we should be proud of it. Its a shame to see a vital American ideal subjected to ignorant attacks and thats why Americans United defends separation every day.

Wed love to haveyour support!

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a nonpartisan educational and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the separation of religion and government as the only way to ensure freedom of religion, including the right to believe or not believe, for all. http://www.au.org

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Rob Boston: Trump Adviser Unleashes Error-Filled Attack On Separation Of Church And State - YubaNet