The secular nature of the US government

The right wing and the evangelicals have suggested that the separation of church and state is a myth, but the historical facts suggest otherwise. 

Thomas Paine in Common Sense wrote:

"I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.


I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.


All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

The concept of separation of church and state was based on the Free Mason Constitution. Nine Freemasons signed the US constitution and others became freemasons at a later date:

George Washington
raised: Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia: 1753
Benjamin Franklin
Lodge at Tun Tavern, Philadelphia: 1731
Rufus King
St John’s Lodge, Newburyport, Massachusetts
John Blair
First Grand Master, Virginia. Williamsburg Lodge No. 6
Gunning Bedford Jr.
First Grand Master, Delaware. Lodge 14, Christina Ferry, Delaware.
John Dickinson
Lodge No. 18, Dover, Delaware: 1780
Jacob Broom
Lodge No. 14, Christina Ferry, Delaware, 1780
David Brearley
First Grand Master, New Jersey: 1787. Military Lodge No. 19
Daniel Caroll
St. John’s Lodge No. 20, Maryland: 1781, Lodge No. 16, Baltimore

Later became freemasons:

Jonathan Dayton
Temple No. 1, Elizabeth Town, New Jersey
James McHenry
Spiritual Lodge No. 23, Baltimore, Maryland: 1806
William Patterson
Trinity Lodge No. 5, New Jersey: 1788. Berkshire Lodge No. 5, Stockbridge, Ma

Freemasons have been consistent advocates of the Freedom of Religion, as found in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Many of the Founders were deists who believed in God but not organized religion.  Men like Benjamin Franklin held cynical views of religion.  Franklin stated that light houses were more useful than churches. The Founders knew of dangers religion posed to the new republic. The Roman Catholic Inquisition didn't end until the 1830s.

If you want to see what the  Founding Fathers really thought about the separation of church and state, check this reference out: http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/history_of_the_separation_of_chu.htm

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