Letter: Jefferson wanted to protect church from government intrusion

Thursday, Oct. 30, 1997 | 10:16 a.m.

I'm not sure Thomas Jefferson would agree with Garbian's interpretation. After all, the phrase comes from a letter Jefferson wrote to Baptists and Congregationalists in 1802 and was never endorsed or ratified by Congress or the electorate. Research shows that the wall Jefferson had in mind when writing this letter was actually around the church, to protect the church from infringements by the federal government.

This is the same Jefferson who gave leadership to the founding of the University of Virginia and recommended that students be allowed to pray and worship together on campus and, if need be, to meet and pray with their professors on campus.

This is the same Jefferson who authored the first plan of public education adopted for Washington, D.C., which included the Bible and a hymnal as resources to teach reading to students. Jefferson's own words, engraved in marble on his memorial in Washington, state, "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?"

It sounds to me like Jefferson wanted religion to be a part of this nation and its people. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reinforces that thought with these words: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Let's set the record straight. There is no legal wall between the church and state as far as religion goes. And let's hope there never is. Can you imagine the mess we'll all be in when men and women are allowed to set the tone for right and wrong based on the moral attitudes and situational ethics of the day, ignoring the path outlined by God?

Mike Miller