THE MYTH OF SEPARATION BY DAVID BARTON
Q.: What is your opinion of
The real myth is that Mr. Barton is an historian.
1. It is highly dishonest for any writer on this subject to distort Thomas Jefferson's deliberate definition (1802) of the religion clauses as "building a wall of separation between Church & State"; to omit James Madison's statements about (1811) "the essential distinction between civil and religious functions," (1819) "the total separation of the Church from the State," and (before 1833) "the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States"; and to skip Alexis de Tocqueville's assertion (1835) that in America "all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state."
2. The Constitution says what it means and means what it says: "no religious test," and "no law respecting an establishment of religion"; those statements are clearly in harmony with Jefferson, Madison, Tocqueville, and "separation"--but not with Mr. Barton.
