Church v State
Last time I was discussing that crazy, imaginary “wall between the church and state” that liberals have erected in order to secularize America. Who or what was the originator of this wall of separation? No, it wasn’t Thomas Jefferson; it wasn’t the Supreme Court forbidding prayer in public schools in the early 1960’s. It was Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. Here is more from Thomas Jeffress’s great book:
The first time the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment had erected a “wall of separation church and state” and that the duty of the Court was to ensure that the “wall….be kept high and impregnable” was in the case of “Everson v. Board of Education in 1947. In this landmark case the Supreme Court forbade the State of New Jersey to expend tax dollars for religious education. The guiding force behind this decision was Justice Hugo Black who cited Jefferson’s “wall of separation” in his majority opinion.
The iron curtain Justice Black erected between Christianity and government had little to do with Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution. It wasn’t Jefferson’s wall; it was Hugo Black’s wall. Law Professor Daniel Dreisbach of the University of Chicago said, “You can’t understand the period when Justice Black was on the court without understanding the fear American elites had of Catholic influence and power.” (Remember that in those days nearly all parochial schools were Catholic.)
Hugo Black’s anti-catholic bias was no doubt due to his former membership in the Klu Klux Klan, which was noted for its bigotry against Catholicism. Thus his desire to build a “high and impregnable” wall between the church and state was really a desire to build a wall between the Catholic Church and the rest of society.
Two current members of the Supreme Court agree. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia have recently argued that the rabid desire to wall off “sectarian” groups from government support was founded upon anti-Catholic bigotry. “It was an open secret that ‘sectarian’ was a code word for ‘Catholic.’ This doctrine, born of bigotry, should be buried now,” Justice Thomas wrote in a recent court opinion.
By the way, if the separation of church and state was such a foundational concept in the founding of our nation, why didn’t the phrase appear in the World Book Encyclopedia until 1967? Because the wall-as it is applied today-was not erected by our nation’s forefathers, but by those who are seeking to secularize our nation and separate it from its Christian heritage.
Isn’t this great stuff? Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion in my next journal entry! Find out what the past 40 secularized years have done to American society. You’ll be amazed, I’m sure.
The first time the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the First Amendment had erected a “wall of separation church and state” and that the duty of the Court was to ensure that the “wall….be kept high and impregnable” was in the case of “Everson v. Board of Education in 1947. In this landmark case the Supreme Court forbade the State of New Jersey to expend tax dollars for religious education. The guiding force behind this decision was Justice Hugo Black who cited Jefferson’s “wall of separation” in his majority opinion.
The iron curtain Justice Black erected between Christianity and government had little to do with Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution. It wasn’t Jefferson’s wall; it was Hugo Black’s wall. Law Professor Daniel Dreisbach of the University of Chicago said, “You can’t understand the period when Justice Black was on the court without understanding the fear American elites had of Catholic influence and power.” (Remember that in those days nearly all parochial schools were Catholic.)
Hugo Black’s anti-catholic bias was no doubt due to his former membership in the Klu Klux Klan, which was noted for its bigotry against Catholicism. Thus his desire to build a “high and impregnable” wall between the church and state was really a desire to build a wall between the Catholic Church and the rest of society.
Two current members of the Supreme Court agree. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia have recently argued that the rabid desire to wall off “sectarian” groups from government support was founded upon anti-Catholic bigotry. “It was an open secret that ‘sectarian’ was a code word for ‘Catholic.’ This doctrine, born of bigotry, should be buried now,” Justice Thomas wrote in a recent court opinion.
By the way, if the separation of church and state was such a foundational concept in the founding of our nation, why didn’t the phrase appear in the World Book Encyclopedia until 1967? Because the wall-as it is applied today-was not erected by our nation’s forefathers, but by those who are seeking to secularize our nation and separate it from its Christian heritage.
Isn’t this great stuff? Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion in my next journal entry! Find out what the past 40 secularized years have done to American society. You’ll be amazed, I’m sure.