Constitutional Law,
Letters
Dec. 3, 2010
The Wall That Separates
Stephen Rohde writes in response to "The Founders Did Not Seek to Abolish Religion."
Stephen F. Rohde
Email: rohdevictr@aol.com
Stephen is a retired civil liberties lawyer and contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books, is author of American Words for Freedom and Freedom of Assembly.
Kris Whitten's attempt to refute the principle that the First Amendment created a "wall of separation" between church and state is riddled with factual errors. ("The Founders Did Not Seek to Abolish Religion," Nov. 24) I'll just point out one glaring example.
Whitten falsely claims that James Madison espoused the view that "the Establishment Clause did not require neutrality on the part of government in respect of religion." On the contrary, Madison wrote that both the government and religion benefited by "the total separation of the church from the State" (Letter to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819), which was "strongly guarded...in the Constitution of the United States" (Detached Memoranda, circa 1820). Citing the "line of separation between the rights of religion and the civil authority," Madison urged that the "tendency to a usurpation on one side or the other or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them will be best guarded against by entire abstinence of the government from interference in any way whatever." (Letter Rev. Jasper Adams, Spring 1832). Madison regarded "the practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government as essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States." (Letter to Baptist Churches in North Carolina, June 3, 1811). STEPHEN ROHDE LOS ANGELESSubmit your own column for publication to Diana Bosetti
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