The "Wall of Separation"

The “Wall of Separation”: A Brief History of the First Amendment’s Provision of Freedom of Religion in the United States
By Barbara LeMaster

Ten years after the first Puritans settled in America (then called the ‘New World’) a man named John Winthrop—a layman trained as a lawyer—alluded to the words of Jesus when he urged a group of travelers to think of their new home as “a city upon a hill,” a source of light to all the world.  The United States has seen generations of its people committed to and frequently alluding to God, a supernatural force that created the world and remains interested in history.  The country’s earliest reason for being, according to this tradition, is religious freedom.

However, it is not as simple as that.  English settlers who braved the transatlantic
crossing had varying motives including investing, gold hunting, as well as fleeing from persecution.  Winthrop, later the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was engaged in the construction of a Christian commonwealth.  He had drafted a Body of Liberties that frankly denounced anyone dissenting from Puritan orthodoxy.  Religious freedom might have been desirable, but it certainly was not a provision for women, African slaves, and Native Americans, who fought with the settlers many times.  Jon Meacham describes it as “a moral dictatorship.” (48).

One early dissenter from Winthrop’s worldview was Roger Williams, a minister.  He
called for “a wall or hedge of separation between the Garden of the church and the
wilderness of the world.” (Meacham 54).  Williams was later expelled from the colony in 1636 after preaching that the civil authorities had no right to enforce religious edicts. 

The irony between the ideal of religious freedom for all and the reality of religious
intolerance on the part of the Puritans was not lost on the Founding Fathers who drafted the Constitution. 

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and other framers knew why
church and state needed to be separated.  Certainly not because religion is a force for evil; many of the framers themselves believed in God, and some described themselves as Christians.  The reason for the separation is elementary: religion united with the power of government spawns tyranny.  (Lynn 7).

Inspired by the Declaration of Independence, James Madison offered nine proposed
amendments to Congress over the course of a three-hour speech delivered on June 8, 1789.  His fourth proposed amendment had ten separate paragraphs and included all but a few of the provisions adopted in the Bill of Rights.  The first paragraph dealt with religion: “The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.” (Irons 75)

In 1791, ten initial amendments were drafted and ratified to the Constitution.  They are commonly known as the Bill of Rights.  The freedoms expressly stated in the Bill of Rights belong to individuals and are neither dependent upon government permission nor subject to government curtailment, thus circumventing what one federal court described as “the tyranny of majorities” over individual rights. (“Awake!” 25) The text of the first amendment reads as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  The language of the text implies not only that no state-sanctioned religion is allowable, but also that no laws funding or supporting a particular religion are allowed. 

The neutrality with which the government must treat religion reflects the peoples it
protects.  America is a cultural and religious melting pot.  Cubans who practice
Catholicism are as welcome in this nation as Russian Jews or English Protestants.  Thomas Jefferson, himself a Unitarian, used the terms ‘divine providence’ and ‘Nature’s God’ in drafting the Declaration of Independence but it is noteworthy that he makes no explicit references to the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible.  Jefferson was not claiming that America was a particularly exalted nation; he only sought equality amongst the other nations of the world. 

However, the deistic view of the framers is seen by some as antireligious bias. 
Fundamentalist ministers in particular question why church and state must be separate.  They offer the fact that much of the nation’s laws can be traced back to the principles in the Ten Commandments and other religious texts.  Tim LaHaye asserts that “we believe that America is great and free because of her Christian foundation.” (93).  Another fundamentalist minister, D. James Kennedy, pointedly asks in one of his books, “What if America were a Christian nation again?”

Many of the letters of the founding fathers reflects his own faith; Washington prayed
many times during the course of the Revolutionary War for victory.  One letter in
particular, written by Jefferson to a Baptist church, has been misinterpreted over the
years.  The Danbury, Connecticut, church had initially written to then-President Jefferson complaining about being taxed to support established Congregationalist churches.  Jefferson’s reply was that the First Amendment erected “a wall of separation between church and state”, a barrier that would essentially prevent preachers and politicians from trespassing on each other’s domain (Irons 410). 

Justice Hugo Black in 1947, writing for the Everson decision, stated “that wall must be kept high and impregnable.  We would not approve the slightest breach.” (Walker 219)

At issue in the Everson case was a New Jersey law providing public funds for busing parochial school children.  This was but one of many laws providing public support for religious activities; others made provision for students to participate in religious exercises or granted them time off from school for religious instruction.  The Supreme Court sustained the New Jersey law in Everson. 

This decision galvanized the partisans on both sides.  On one side were the forces of organized religion that sought to maintain their prerogative of using the state’s
machinery—in particular, schools—to advance their religious doctrines.  On the other side stood the more liberal ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and separationist groups, insisting that the government must be neutral in religious matters.  The larger question in the background was the place of religion in American life.  The separationists argued that Protestantism was the nation’s unofficial religion; among the groups organized in protest of the Court’s decision were Protestants and other Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Jewish Congress, and the Anti-Defamation League.  The accomodationists, or religious groups, counter argued that America was essentially a Christian nation and that democracy would crumble without a sturdy religious foundation. 

Over the next few years, the question of the “wall of separation” between church and state became one of the most hotly contested political issues in America.  In 1948, the Court heard the case McCollum vs. Board of Education, in which an Illinois atheist argued successfully that allowing religious teachers to come into public schools to offer religious instruction breached that wall.  The 1940s and 1950s saw the Catholic Church come under Court scrutiny for use of public funds for its parochial schools, some of which were listed a public schools.  The 1962 Engel vs. Vitale decision caused another firestorm.  The Court found that nondenominational prayer was considered a religious activity and was “wholly inconsistent” with the First Amendment (Walker 224). 

Billy Graham, the famous preacher, protested the Court’s ruling.  “Eighty percent of the American people want Bible reading and prayer in the schools.  Why should the majority be so severely penalized by the protests of a handful?”  (Meacham 189)  To answer the esteemed Mr. Graham: this is what America is all about.  The idea—the religious idea—that all men are created equal and are entitled by God’s laws to protection from the pressures of the majority.

It is notable that America is by far a very religious nation.  Despite removing the Bible from the classroom and prayer from the schools, America has not become completely secular.  Most Americans are moderate and civil in this matter, which is far from being over; new debates over the First Amendment spring up quite often.  However, the spirit with which Jefferson and the framers wrote is quite alive: nobody should be forced to participate in a religious exercise in which he or she feels uncomfortable. 

References: 

Irons, Peter.  A People’s History of the Supreme Court.  Penguin Books, New York, 1999.

Lynn, Barry W. (Rev) Piety and Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom. Harmony Books, New York, 2006.

Meacham, Jon.  American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.  Random House, New York, 2006.

Walker, Samuel. In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU.  Oxford University Press, New York, 1990.