I mentioned the book, Ten Tortured Words, a few blogs ago. The book took it’s title from the first ten words in the American Bill of Rights.
Here they are.
“Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion.”
There would be no “Church of England” or Church of any state for that matter. Men and women would be free. Free to believe. Very cool.
In America, we’ve begun to interpret these ten words in isolation and out of context. We’ve taken a letter from Jefferson to the Danbury congregation and used that as the basis for constructing “a wall of seperation” between Church and State.
Talk about missing the point.
The founding fathers must be doing more than turning in their graves. None of them, including Jefferson, could have possibly thought we would worship the “god of reason” at the exclusion of all others.
In practice, we are.
We have told the founders to “net it out” too. Here’s the first SIXTEEN letters of the American Bill of Rights. Check it out…it seems there are six forgotten words!
“Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF.”
If you’re curious, check out one of these reads to challenge your thinking…
Ten Tortured Words, by Stephen Mansfield
The American Hour, by Os Guinness
American Gospel, by Jon Meacham
Founding Brothers, by Joseph Ellis
The Founding Fathers on Leadership, by Donald Phillips
BUILT TO LEAD 
Thank you for reminding us all of other “bookend” of the 1st Amendment religious liberty clause.
The Williamsburg Charter of 1988 may be the best modern explanation of the 1st Amendment: “the need for such a readjustment today can best be addressed by remembering that the two clauses are essentially one provision for preserving religious liberty. Both parts, No establishment and Free exercise, are to be comprehensively understood as being in the service of religious liberty as a positive good. At the heart of the Establishment clause is the prohibition of state sponsorship of religion and at the heart of Free Exercise clause is the prohibition of state interference with religious liberty.
No sponsorship means that the state must leave to the free citizenry the public expression of ultimate beliefs, religious or otherwise, providing only that no expression is excluded from, and none governmentally favored, in the continuing democratic discourse.
No interference means the assurance of voluntary religious expression free from governmental intervention. This includes placing religious expression on an equal footing with all other forms of expression in genuinely public forums.
No sponsorship and no interference together mean fair opportunity. That is to say, all faiths are free to enter vigorously into public life and to exercise such influence as their followers and ideas engender. Such democratic exercise of influence is in the best tradition of American voluntarism and is not an unwarranted ‘imposition’ or ‘establishment.'”
If I could have said it better, I would.
Randy Butler
Awesome Randy. Thanks for your addition…