How High the Wall Between Church & State?

The phrase “separation of church and state” nowhere appears in the Constitution of the United States. Despite this lacuna, American political activists have peddled the idea that this wall of separation arose as an insurmountable fixture in the early American republic. The founders, furthermore, apparently built this wall to ensure that Christianity had no access to the public square. America was conceived of as a secular project—a self-consciously godless form of government devoid of any attachment to religion. Indeed, according to Andrew Seidel, the founders explicitly had Christianity in mind as they built the wall between church and state, because Christianity was, and is, antithetical to the American way of life.   Read Full Article »