OPINION: Importance of separation

Once upon a time when I was maybe 10 years old and, as far as I knew, agreed with everything the adults around me said, I learned about the separation of church and state.

We were sitting in our lunchroom, aka the church basement, and somehow got on the topic of schools accepting money from the government. Yes, a strange topic for a bunch of 10 year olds, but this happened quite often for us. I think one of the area public schools was getting some sort of upgrade, and we were wondering why our tiny school never got things like that.

“We don’t want that type of help,” my teacher said. “They get money from the government, so they have to do what the government tells them. If we did, we would have to start teaching things like evolution.” God forbid something like that were to happen. We were all horrified and quickly learned to be grateful for the separation of church and state. As strong independent Christians, we would never take government money, I thought.

Well, what my teacher didn’t tell me is that we were participating in the National School Lunch Program already and would soon start accepting vouchers to bring more students to our school. A bit hypocritical if you ask me, but that opens an entirely new can of worms. The point is, a very conservative church and school taught me something about government I carry with me now, likely much to their chagrin.

Fast forward to 2025 and I feel like many of the people once proclaiming separation of church and state are the same ones claiming the U.S. is a Christian nation. As a Christian, I don’t want the government to come into my church and tell me what I can and can’t believe, but also have no want for any church to tell my government to follow their religious rules.

Keeping the state separate from churches and religion in general has been an important part of the United States since its inception. I recently finished a book by Randall Balmer called “America’s Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State.” Obviously there is a major bias in the writing, but Balmer used many quotes from our founding fathers and other important historical Americans on the matter.

In one letter, George Washington said, “We ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna-Charta of our country.” Washington was clearly not the only founding father with this sentiment, seeing as there is no mention of God in the U.S. Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson felt even stronger, saying “a well of separation between church and state” was needed.

“Religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God,” Jefferson wrote in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

Jefferson is quoting the First Amendment, which was drafted by James Madison and introduced to the national government in 1789. The First Amendment, along with the other nine that make up the Bill of Rights, was ratified in 1791, enshrining the separation of church and state into national law.

This separation was emphasized later that decade with the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. This was the first treaty between the U.S. and Tripoli, now Libya, in order to protect American ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Article 11 of the treaty states “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” The treaty was unanimously ratified by the U.S. Senate.

People are always talking about making sure the government is run in the way our founding fathers wanted it. Well, they make it pretty clear how important the separation of church and state were to them, so what are we doing now? The phrase “under God” wasn’t even added to the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954, even though it was published in 1892.

In the case of my grade school, yes, feed all the kids no matter where the money comes from. It is our duty as humans to keep children safe and healthy. However, it is not OK to use government money for religious reasons. Everyone would be horrified if a pastor used offering money to run for election, aka religious money for government reasons. Why is it any different the other way around?

As the nation continues toward an uncertain future, we need to remember that enforcing religious values in the government will lead us nowhere. Washington, Jefferson and Madison were all clear on the importance of this separation.