[Vision2020] Thomas Jefferson and the "Wall of Separation"

[Tom Hansen]

"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, to the Virginia Baptists (1808). This is his second use
of the term "wall of separation," here quoting his own use in the Danbury
Baptist letter. 

This wording was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate
description of the Establishment Clause: Reynolds (98 U.S. at 164, 1879);
Everson (330 U.S. at 59, 1947); McCollum (333 U.S. at 232, 1948)