Essential Liberty

Former Heritage president Ed Feulner: “[T]he Founders’ attitude toward religion is widely misunderstood. A major source of confusion is the phrase ‘separation of church and state,’ used by President Thomas Jefferson in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut. Many have interpreted this phrase to mean that religion should be entirely personal, kept out of schools and other public institutions. However, as Heritage scholar Jennifer Marshall has argued, this interpretation is incorrect: ‘Jefferson wanted to protect states’ freedom of religion from federal government control and religious groups’ freedom to tend to their internal matters of faith and practice without government interference generally.‘ America’s Founding Fathers did not want the government to impose a government-sponsored church on all Americans. Neither did they seek to confine religion to a separate, private sphere of life. On the contrary, they believed that religion had a vital and enduring role to play in the public affairs of the new American Republic.”