In Florida, the idea of separation of church and state led the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to file a lawsuit against Dixie County for the removal of a six-ton monument displaying the Ten Commandments at a courthouse. The case was first won by the ACLU in 2011, then dismissed on appeal.
Our Founding Fathers did not intend to form a nation free FROM religion. They intended to form a nation with freedom OF religion. They encouraged religion and morality and expected leaders to be virtuous.
Case in point, in his 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington declared, “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” The overwhelming majority of our founders held these values. Denying this fact is a distortion of American history.
Historian David Barton, an endorser of Convention of States, notes that Thomas Jefferson regularly attended services in the Hall of Representatives when that became a custom. Those religious services were held weekly at the U.S. Capitol from 1795 until after the Civil War. He adds these religious services were “regularly attended by U.S. Presidents, Senators, and Representatives.”
Another founder, Noah Webster, encourages citizens to exercise their voting rights this way, “When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God.” Even William Penn, founder of the Pennsylvania colony wrote, “Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants.”
The notion of the separation of church and state is rooted in a private letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptist Association of Danbury, CT in 1802. The church was concerned about the First Amendment’s “free exercise” of religion, which seemed to them as “favors granted” by government and not “inalienable rights.” Jefferson addressed the church’s concern and assured them they did not need to fear interference from government in exercising their religious freedoms.
Jefferson asserted that the First Amendment prevents government from establishing a national religion or interfering with one’s “free exercise thereof.” He noted this was kindred to “a wall of separation between Church and State,” erected against any government assault on their God-given natural rights.
It is important to note that the Constitution was written to keep government in check, not to restrict the people. Constitutional scholar Randy E. Barnett, a member of the “Legal Board of Reference for the Convention of States Project,” refers to the Constitution as, “the law that governs those who govern us.”
Notwithstanding, FDR appointee, and active member of the Ku Klux Klan, Justice Hugo Black, wrote the Court’s opinion in 1947’s Everson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing. Referencing Jefferson’s letter, he wrote, “Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups, and vice versa.”
This newly interpreted meaning, notes historian David Barton, has distorted Jefferson’s phrase to mean “almost exactly the opposite of what it originally meant.” These sorts of distortions have plagued Americans since the very beginning. It is why Jefferson wrote his 1823 letter to Justice William Johnson.
Jefferson noted, “On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was past.”
Rick Green, another endorser of Convention of States, and host of Patriot Academy’s Biblical Citizenship courses, agrees with Jefferson. Green asserts that, “To understand the ‘intent’ of the legislators who pass any law, one must look at the journal where the discussions that took place at the time the law was being debated were recorded.”
In Florida, we are blessed to have a governor that understands the purpose of government. Videlicet, to secure the natural rights of citizens. Florida has a history of leading the way in restoring our founder’s original intent. In 2017, the Florida legislature passed Senate Bill 436 (SB-436), protecting religious expression in public schools. It is now Florida Statute under Title 48, 1002.206. These battles will continue to be fought until a more permanent solution is in place.
A more permanent solution is the goal of a Convention of States. Through our efforts in growing an army of grassroots activists, our mission, we also grow influence and support for our goal. As our own FAQ document notes, “The grassroots army is the key to implementing an Article V convention.”
If you have not already done so, please sign the petition below. This petition is then forwarded to your State Representative and State Senator. It lets them know you support Florida’s participation in a Convention of States to propose amendments that limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints, and place term limits on federal officials.
Once you have signed the petition, consider taking the next step and volunteer to become a part of America’s largest grassroots organization.
