On Saturday I attended the Gaetz town hall meetings in Navarre and later in Pensacola. Pensacola's meeting was the site of about 30 protesters. As I left early I walked by a male protester with a sign stating "a separation of Church and State." I asked him if he knew where that phrase came from, and he replied the Constitution. I told him no, and informed him it came from James Madison's words in the Federalist Papers regarding religion stated in Amendment I.
It was at this point a female fellow protester needed to obstruct the knowledge of history and truth by trying to drown out the conversation with her protest chants. What both might have learned is James Madison used his phrase to explain the constitution's clause being "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, etc." Madison goes on to say the constitution's intent is to separate America from the centuries of European and Middle Eastern bloodshed caused by picking one religious faith as a state or national religion.
The Constitution's intent is not to limit organized religion from participating in government anymore than limiting organized labor or organized political parties participating in government. The "one Supreme Court" lawyers purposely got it wrong by borrowing, and using this non-constitutional open ended phrase of "separation" while ignoring Madison's explanation. This continuously allows their court promoted opinions to make unconstitutional policy enforced as law regarding religion when constitutionally no laws directed solely at a religion can be passed.
Steven King, Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: LETTER TO THE EDITOR: On 'church and state'