Originally Posted by J.Anderson

To the OP: You are a victim of bogus propaganda. "Separation of Church and State" is a term used by Jefferson to elaborate on the first amendment. From Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, 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."

Furthermore, Madison declared in an article to the Baptist Churches that: "Strongly guarded is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States"

The intentions of the founding fathers are clear, even if those exact words are not present in the constitution itself.

Originally Posted by J.Anderson

Let me put it another way, lets say a group of muslim siblings come into your neighborhood and are going to school with your child. Would you be comfortable with them having the right to chant "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet" in class with your child? Religion and expression of religion have no place in state funded organizations. If you want expression of religion in schools, pony up the cash for a private christian school or stop complaining about the founding fathers and their wisdom.

Originally Posted by Andaras

If Christians wish to partake in said activities then they should do so in a private area, whether it be a private Christian school, household, private Christian community groups etc. Having a secular state means the state takes no side in any religion, meaning that any 'public square' or grounds cannot be used for religion because it makes the impression of the impartial secular state favoring one religion over the rest, which is why teaching religion in public schools must be objective and give equal time to all major religions.

Originally Posted by Qwerty

So what part of the state do you want religion to control? Or what part of religion do you want the state to control? I'm confused of what you want :-/

Originally Posted by sunnyside

Keep religious ideas out of laws. Um no. A law is not unconstituational if there might be some trace of religion in it's origion. A law is a law and all are dealt with the same way regardless of why there were written up in the first place.

Originally Posted by Rebellion

You are incorrect, per google the phrase mostly unique comes up with over 3 million hits making the use of the phrase not so unique. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Originally Posted by MasTequila

The seperation of church and state is a Communist idea, NOT an American idea. The United States was founded by people seeking freedom from a government intolerant of their religion. Thus the passage limiting the peoples right to freely express their religion, speech, press and assemble.

Originally Posted by JavaBlack

The phrase came into popular usage because Jefferson used it. No it didn't make it into the Constitution, but it was an idea some of the founders liked.
What got into the Constitution was a compromise between those who wanted religion divorced from government and those who think that would lead to the collapse of civilization.
Been a conentious issue ever since.

At any rate, I don't think the seperation of Church and State suggested by Jefferson is to be taken the same way the Soviets took it. Freedom from and freedom of religion go hand in hand.