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	Historic Documents - Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists
		Jefferson took the gloves off when he asserted that the proclamations of thanksgivings and fasts were "practiced indeed by the Executive of another nation as the legal head of its church," i.e., by George III, King of England.
		Jefferson's participation in House church services and his granting of permission to various denominations to worship in executive office buildings, where four-hour communion services were held, cannot be discussed here; these activities are fully illustrated in the forthcoming exhibition.
		Jefferson has been seen at church, and has assisted in singing the hundredth psalm." In presenting Jefferson to the nation as a churchgoer, this publicity offset whatever negative impressions might be created by his refusal to proclaim thanksgiving and fasts and prevented the erosion of his political base in God-fearing areas like New England.
	patriotpost.us /histdocs/jefferson_letter_to_the_danbury_baptists_history.asp (2491 words)

	The Wall Jefferson Almost Built
		A culture war was raging: Jefferson's Republicans, jealously protective of the separation of powers, accused the Federalists of secretly being monarchists, keen to exploit religion for partisan purposes.
		Jefferson's wall, Dreisbach concludes, wasn't meant to bar religion from public life but to prevent faith from being either politicized or tread upon by government.
		For Jefferson's wall between church and state was meant to serve a greater goal -- to promote and preserve religious liberty for Americans of all faiths.
	www.heritage.org /Press/Commentary/ed122701c.cfm (763 words)

	Establishing a Federal Republic - Thomas Jefferson (Library of Congress Exhibition)
		Jefferson was instrumental in building the national capital district both in his role as secretary of state, and, later, as president.
		Jefferson's political lieutenant, clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, and later first Librarian of Congress John James Beckley was the immediate source of the confidential documents used by Callender to discredit Hamilton.
		Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated third president of the United States on March 4, 1801, after being elected by the House of Representatives on February 17, 1801, on the thirty-sixth ballot in one of the nation's closest and most divisive presidential contests.
	www.loc.gov /exhibits/jefferson/jefffed.html (2474 words)

	The Mythical "Wall of Separation": How a Misused Metaphor Changed Church–State Law, Policy, and ...
		Board of Education (1947), the United States Supreme Court was asked to interpret the First Amendment's prohibition on laws "respecting an establishment of religion." "In the words of Jefferson," the justices famously declared, the First Amendment "was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State" "[that] must be kept high and impregnable.
		Jefferson?s wall, as a matter of federalism, was erected between the national and state governments on matters pertaining to religion and not, more generally, between the church and all civil government.
		Jefferson?s metaphor, sadly, has been used to silence the religious voice in the marketplace of ideas and, in a form of religious apartheid, to segregate faith communities behind a restrictive barrier.
	www.heritage.org /Research/PoliticalPhilosophy/fp6.cfm (4359 words)

	Thomas Jefferson on church and state
		Thomas Jefferson on Separation of Church and State
		Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the principle author of the Declaration of Independence, the third President of the United States, and a primary architect of the American tradition of separation of church and state.
		Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, one of the most important separationist documents of the eighteenth century.
	members.tripod.com /~candst/tnppage/qjeffson.htm (1167 words)

	NOW with David Brancaccio. Politics & Economy. God and Government. Thomas Jefferson's Letter \| PBS
		There is a debate to this day as to the intent and the meaning of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists, in which he spoke of a "wall of separation between Church and State." Some say he was responding to pressure from the Baptists to set aside a day of fasting.
		However, it has also been documented that Jefferson sent the first draft of his letter to his attorney general for comments and corrections, then wrote notes about what was revised in the letter in the margins before sending out the official letter.
		The 'wall of separation between church and State' is a metaphor based on bad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging.
	www.pbs.org /now/politics/jeffersonletter.html (987 words)

	The Myth of Separation of Church and State (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-21)
		Jefferson made it clear in his letter to the Danbury Congregation that the separation was to be that government would not establish a national religion or dictate to men how to worship God.
		Jefferson's letter from which the phrase "separation of church and state" was taken affirmed first amendment rights.
		The reason Jefferson choose the expression "separation of church and state" was because he was addressing a Baptist congregation; a denomination of which he was not a member.
	www.noapathy.org /tracts/mythofseparation.html (2394 words)

	The Separation of Church and State
		Jefferson believed that the government was to be powerless to interfere with religious expressions for a very simple reason: he had long witnessed the unhealthy tendency of government to encroach upon the free exercise of religion.
		Jefferson’s reference to “natural rights” invoked an important legal phrase which was part of the rhetoric of that day and which reaffirmed his belief that religious liberties were inalienable rights.
		Such rulings against State laws are a direct violation of the words and intent of the very one from whom the courts claim to derive their policy.
	www.leaderu.com /common/sepchurchstate.html (2082 words)

	200 Years and Counting: Thomas Jefferson's Famous "Wall of Separation between Church and State" Letter
		Jefferson sent his letter in response to an October 1801 letter from a Baptist congregation that urged him to defend a constitutionally mandated strict separation of church and state.
		Jefferson also almost certainly did not, as some Christian-nation mythologists like David Barton have claimed, give a speech or write a letter asserting that the wall was intended to be only a one-way wall protecting churches from government but not vice versa.
		Jefferson, a Mammoth Cheese, and the 'Wall of Separation Between Church and State': A Bicentennial Commemoration," in the Journal of Church and State, 43, 4 (2001): 725-45.
	www.secularhumanism.org /library/shb/buckner_18_1.html (1456 words)

	Church and State
		In one of the most important Supreme Court decisions on the separation of church and state in regards to education, Justices William Douglas and Hugo Black concurred that religious schools are by nature harmful.
		Stating its goals, its executive director said, "What Christians have got to do is take back this country, one precinct at a time, one neighborhood at a time, and one state at a time, I honestly believe that in my lifetime we will see a country once again governed by Christians.
		The state is not to transgress the sovereignty of the other spheres although there are times when it is appropriate for the state to give material aid, in a neutral manner, to organizations in another sphere.
	www.leaderu.com /orgs/probe/docs/churchstate.html (2756 words)

	Church-state 'wall' Jefferson nearly built
		Jefferson's Republicans, jealously protective of the separation of powers, accused the Federalists of secretly being monarchists, keen to exploit religion for partisan purposes.
		Jefferson agreed with these dissenters — as did virtually all the Founders — that when government coerces conscience in matters of faith it threatens both civic peace and the purity of religion.
		For Jefferson's wall between church and state was meant to serve a greater goal — to promote and preserve religious liberty for Americans of all faiths.
	www.religionsfreiheit.at /the-wall.htm (777 words)

	POLITICS IN THE PULPIT: WHAT WOULD JEFFERSON DO? Church & State - Find Articles
		Jefferson went on to argue that the scope of human knowledge is so vast that scholars often confine themselves to specific areas of study.
		Jefferson continued, "But I suppose there is not an instance of a single congregation which has employed their preacher for the mixed purposes of lecturing them from the pulpit in chemistry, in medicine, in law, in the science and principles of government, or in anything but religion exclusively.
		Jefferson was a strong proponent of the view that the fruits of religious freedom were for all to enjoy - not just certain types of Christians.
	www.findarticles.com /p/articles/mi_qa3944/is_200410/ai_n9437348 (634 words)

	Newsvine - A Wall of Seperation Between Church and State
		When Thomas Jefferson wrote his famous letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 he had no way of knowing that, 204 years later, it would serve as the short hand for the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
		Jefferson's phrase "a wall of separation between church and state" or the more modern "separation of church and state" has been often bandied about by individuals seeking to argue against religiously motivated actions on the part of the government and against the interference by religious institutions in the affairs of state.
		Jefferson's words are usually employed in somewhat heated debates here on Newsvine, and the consequential rebuttal inevitably involves demanding that the Jeffersonian party produce evidence that these words appear in the Constitution - which they obviously do not.
	killfile.newsvine.com /_news/2006/02/27/110730-a-wall-of-seperation-between-church-and-state (776 words)

	NOW with David Brancaccio. Politics & Economy. God and Government. Separating Church and State \| PBS
		Jefferson was unhappy with the omission of some form of bill of rights "providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for the freedom of religion."
		Well-known for his unorthodox religious opinions as well as for his liberal views on religious liberty and the separation of church and state, Jefferson was the writer of Virginia's Statute for Religious Freedom, which ended all practice of state-supported religion in Virginia when it was enacted into law in 1786.
		Jefferson was the one who coined the phrase "wall of separation between Church and State" in a letter he wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, in which he described his understanding of the meaning of the religious clauses of the First Amendment.
	www.pbs.org /now/politics/churchandstate.html (497 words)

	Church and State. Role of Christians in Politics.
		Jefferson responded to their letter of concern on January 1, 1802, and assured them that a protective wall separated the church from the state, thus assuring their freedom of religion and religious expression.
		Williams had previously spoken emphatically of "the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world." Jefferson, therefore, chose to apply this concept of a protective "hedge or wall of separation" between the church and the world to the church and the state as well.
		In other words, as used by the Baptists, the church was free to influence the world about them with their religious values, however the world was not to be permitted to enter the church and do likewise.
	www.gracecentered.com /church_and_state.htm (2015 words)

	Pledge by President Jefferson to separate church and state...
		WASHINGTON (AP) - New detective work by the FBI suggests that a famous pledge by President Jefferson to separate church and state was made largely for political reasons, according to the organizer of an exhibit on religion in America at the Library of Congress.
		The FBI laboratory found that Jefferson had first written that he was ``confining myself to the duties of my station, which are merely temporal'' but had later crossed that out.
		Rob Boston, a spokesman of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, objected that Hutson was trying to play down the importance of the letter as a statement of policy.
	www.skeptictank.org /hs/seperate.htm (715 words)

	Jefferson's Wall of Separation Letter - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net
		He was vilified by his political opponents for his role in the passage of the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and for his criticism of such biblical truths as the Great Flood and the theological age of the Earth.
		The letter was the subject of intense scrutiny by Jefferson, and he consulted a couple of New England politicians to assure that his words would not offend while still conveying his message: it was not the place of the Congress or the Executive to do anything that might be misconstrued as the establishment of religion.
		Reflecting upon his knowledge that the letter was far from a mere personal correspondence, Jefferson deleted the block, he noted in the margin, to avoid offending members of his party in the eastern states.
	www.usconstitution.net /jeffwall.html (504 words)

	Separation of Church and State
		This understanding of "separation of church and state" was applied not only during the time of the Founders, but for 170 years afterwards.
		Thomas Jefferson's famous "wall of separation" between church and state comment was made in a letter to a group of Baptist clergymen January 1, 1802 in Danbury, Connecticut, who feared the Congregationalists Church would become the state-sponsored religion.
		The purpose of the separation of church and state in American society is not to exclude the voice of religion from public debate, but to provide a context of religious freedom where the insights of each religious tradition can be set forth and tested.
	www.jeremiahproject.com /culture/ch_state.html (1537 words)

	CNN: "Strike-Outs in Jefferson's Letter on Church and State" June 1, 1998
		In this letter written in 1802, President Thomas Jefferson proclaimed there must be a wall of separation between church and state.
		To soften the tone, Jefferson scratched out the word "eternal" before "wall of separation," and he scratched out "temporal," meaning secular, in describing his role as president.
		Jefferson had been attacked and called an atheist by political enemies for refusing to proclaim a special Thanksgiving feast.
	www.stephenjaygould.org /ctrl/news/file005.html (376 words)

	How Jefferson's Wall Redefined Church-State Law And Policy
		First, Jefferson's trope emphasizes separation between church and state, unlike the First Amendment, which speaks in terms of the nonestablishment and free exercise of religion.
		Jefferson's Baptist correspondents, who agitated for disestablishment but not for separation, were apparently discomfited by the figurative phrase.
		Jefferson's figurative barrier has been used to silence the religious voice in the marketplace of ideas and to segregate faith communities behind a restrictive wall.
	www.freecongress.org /commentaries/2002/021111DD.asp (641 words)

	Gregory Alan Thornbury, Ph.D. - Thomas Jefferson's Anticlericalism, Church, and State
		Jefferson’s response contained far more than the Danbury Association bargained for. The President’s comments radicalized the religious free exercise clause into an anti-ecclesiastical screed. Jefferson began the letter by stating that religion was merely a private matter.
		In this connection, Jefferson rashly concluded that the Constitution “thus build[s] a wall of separation between church and state.” Although the phrase “wall of separation” could trace its provenance to the sixteenth century, the mantra so familiar to modern Americans was decidedly a post-constitutional Jefferson innovation.
		JEFFERSON–AND NO Worse still for Jefferson was the clergy’s involvement in the campaign. Pastors in New York City such as William Linn and Mitchell Mason openly challenged their congregants to take their Christianity with them to the polls. Linn and Mason also decried the potential bitter fruits of Jefferson’s deistic worldview.
	www.uu.edu /centers/christld/academicforum/faculty/article.cfm?ID=39 (674 words)

	On Church and State
		The Baptists objected to Connecticut's establishment of Congregationalism as their state church (because they aspired to be the state church) and wrote Jefferson for help.
		Jefferson assuaged their concerns that the national government would not anoint the Episcopal Church as the "national church" (thank goodness), but he concluded that the Constitution (specifically the Tenth Amendment's federalism provision) established a "wall of separation" prohibiting the national government from interfering with the matters of state governments.
		There is ample evidence that Jefferson did not intend for that metaphor to become an iron curtain between church and state.
	www.frfrogspad.com /chrchst.htm (971 words)

	Many misunderstand Jefferson’s church and state ‘wall of separation’ \| The Citizen Online
		Jefferson should not be considered the final authority on the relationship between church and state, although many magically grant him that authority.
		Jefferson did not invent the concept of the Separation of Church and State.
		The Moravians in Bohemia in 1457 denounced all unions of church and state.
	www.thecitizen.com /node/13595 (1975 words)

	Separation of Church and State
		Foes of the principle of separation of church and state often refer to the word "Creator" in the Declaration of Independence as proof that the framers of the U.S. Constitution intended for the United States to be ruled by a soveriegn being.
		Jefferson, however, was not the only leading figure of the post-revolutionary period to use the term separation.
		Jefferson saw his response to the Danbury Baptists as an opportunity to clear up his views on church and state.
	www.theocracywatch.org /separation_church_state2.htm (2317 words)

	The Christian Nation Myth
		Jefferson was just as suspicious of the traditional belief that the Bible is "the inspired word of God." He rewrote the story of Jesus as told in the New Testament and compiled his own gospel version known as The Jefferson Bible, which eliminated all miracles attributed to Jesus and ended with his burial.
		Jefferson told Lincoln that he considered the letter a means of "sowing useful truths and principles among the people, which might germinate and become rooted among their political tenets" (quoted by Rob Boston in "Myths and Mischief," Church and State, March 1992).
		Jefferson and [George] Wythe, who did not conceal their disbelief in Christianity, took their parts in the duties of vestrymen, the one at Williamsburg, the other at Albermarle; for they wished to be men of influence'" (William Meade, Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1857, I, p.
	www.infidels.org /library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html (4545 words)

	Separation of Church and State? Don't blame Thomas Jefferson
		In this letter, Jefferson is actually responding to a letter he had received from the Danbury Baptists of Danbury, CT. They were a minority denomination in that area and were subjected to persecution for their beliefs.
		They feared that if the government were to adopt a state religion, as it had done in England, that their minority views would be trampled, and they themselves subject to further persecution.
		Jefferson wrote his letter to them to reassure them that they would remain free to worship as they wished, without needing to fear government interference in their religious beliefs or practices.
	www.contenderministries.org /articles/separationmyth.php (1501 words)

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