Texas Lt. Gov. Says Truth Even Most Pastors Don’t Dare: There Is No ‘Separation of Church and State’ in the Constitution
Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick argues that the Constitution does not contain a requirement for a strict “separation of church and state,” challenging a common secular interpretation. He chairs the Religious Liberty Commission, created by President Trump, which is tasked with advising the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies and identifying steps to protect and promote religious liberty both domestically and worldwide.
Patrick contends that the phrase frequently enough cited to justify walling off religion from goverment is not in the Constitution. He points to President Thomas Jefferson’s Danbury baptist letter, in which Jefferson described a “wall of separation” between church and state, as the source of the idea, while noting that the First Amendment’s text itself addresses establishment and free exercise. The article explains that over time interpretations have expanded to limit religion in government affairs, despite the Constitution’s actual wording.
The piece cites sources like KRIV and authorities such as Stand to Reason and Hillsdale College to illustrate debates about the founders’ faith and the purpose of the Constitution.The commission’s topics under consideration include attacks on houses of worship, debanking religious organizations, parental rights in religious education, voluntary prayer in schools, and government displays with religious imagery.Patrick argues there is no reason to remain inactive and that faith should not be suppressed in the contry’s institutions.
Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick decided to correct a common misconception secular America has about the Constitution — there’s nothing in it about a “separation of church and state.”
As noted by a report from KRIV on Tuesday, Patrick chairs the new Religious Liberty Commission which was created by President Donald Trump via executive order last May. Per its mission statement on the Justice Department’s website, the commission works “to advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies of the United States, including by recommending steps to secure domestic religious liberty and identifying opportunities to further the cause of religious liberty around the world.”
Patrick, predicting the criticism leveled at the creation of such a commission, debunked the claim that the Constitution mandates church and state be kept apart.
“For too long, the anti-God left has used this phrase to suppress people of religion in our country,” he said, per KRIV.
It’s astoundingly easy to discover what the Constitution actually says on the matter.
The First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Where is the left getting the “separation of church and state” notion?
The source is President Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut dated Jan. 1, 1802, where he said, “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
Jefferson proceeded to quote the First Amendment, but then gave his own interpretation, the key word being “thus” before opining on that phrase.
While it’s a phrase from one specific founding father, it’s not a phrase that’s actually in the Constitution.
Over the years, the First Amendment has been contorted to mean a prohibition on religion anywhere in governmental affairs, promoting the myth that our nation’s founding was a secular one.
Stand to Reason totals the number of delegates at the Constitutional Convention identifying as Christian at 51 out of 55, with one unknown and three deists.
Per Hillsdale College, former President John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts Militia in October 1798, saying, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
“It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
This shows how a God-fearing people have unfortunately slowly conceded to the left, but have no basis to surrender.
Topics that the commission is considering include attacks on houses of worship, debanking of religious organizations, parental rights with religious education, voluntary prayer in schools, and government displays with religious imagery.
Patrick recognized that his hands are not tied. There’s no reason to sit idly by and let faith be suppressed in a country that never intended for it to be.
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