Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995                   TAG: 9501090005
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: DOUG LEVY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE' NOT IN CONSTITUTION

According to three of five high school columnists and your introduction of the forum, "Prayer violates the constitutionally required separation of church and state." Well, it may surprise many people, but the words "separation of church and state" are not found anywhere in the Constitution, or in any founding document for that matter.

The Constitution does say "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Let's look at what the First Amendment is really saying in the historical and legal background of our country.

Our founding fathers founded the colonies to escape religious persecution. England had established the Church of England as the national denomination. Fifty-two of the 55 founding fathers who shaped the Constitution were active members of Christian churches. They wrote the Declaration of Independence, citing 27 biblical violations by the rulers of England. They wanted freedom of denomination; they did not want separation of church and state.

This is re-enforced by a later Supreme Court decision in 1799 (Runrel v. Winemiller), in which the court stated, "By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion; and all of denominations of Christians are placed on equal footing."

In 1801, the Denberry Baptist Association in Connecticut heard a rumor that the government was going to establish a national denomination and wrote to President Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson responded that the First Amendment has "erected a wall of separation between church and state" and explained that the Baptist association need not fear a federally established denomination.

Christianity had been a strong and vital part of both government and education. Not until the mid-1900s did that change.

In 1962, the Supreme Court banned school prayer. For the first time in court history, the court gave no precedents for their decision. They did not quote a single historical incident or previous legal case. They just stated that prayer in school is unconstitutional. When the court declares something unconstitutional, it is inferring that our founding fathers would have opposed it.

We have put words in the mouths of our founding fathers; perhaps we should let them speak for themselves. Our founding fathers knew that, apart from the precepts of Christianity in our government and in our schools, we would be in trouble.

James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution, said, "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions ... upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

Abraham Lincoln said, "The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation, will be the philosophy of government in the next." We have trained two generations who don't know the true history of this once great nation, and how we attained that level of greatness.

Jefferson, who penned the phrase "separation of church and state," said "and can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis - conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever!"

Doug Levy, a former Radford High School student, attends Radford University and is a columnist for its newspaper, The Tartan.