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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday Trivia
The answer to yesterday's question is: Him and Her.
Today's question is: In which founding legal document is the phrase “wall of separation between church and state” found?
9 comments:
Anonymous
said...
It was a phrase used in a letter from President Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Assembly. It does not appear in the Constitution or any other founding document.
The phrase is found in NONE of the founding legal documents. It is found in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to members of an Anabaptist Church (I can't remember what state the church was in).
Trick question: there is no founding legal document. That phrase originated in an 1802 letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptist congregation of Danbury, CT. The Danbury Baptists were concerned that the federal government was going to establish a particular Christian denomination as our official government religion, and Jefferson was assuring them that they had nothing to fear.
There's no "legal" document codifying "separation of church and state" into law. It's not in the US Constitution or any of the Amendments (the 1st Amendment merely states Congress shall not establish an official state religion--it doesn't mean society will be free FROM religion!). It was mentioned in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to some Baptists, and ever since some folks think it's a law, when it's not.
9 comments:
It was a phrase used in a letter from President Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Assembly. It does not appear in the Constitution or any other founding document.
The phrase is found in NONE of the founding legal documents. It is found in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to members of an Anabaptist Church (I can't remember what state the church was in).
Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.
Man, it has been a long time since I knew one of these--I believe the rules are you must know it off the top of your head.
Anyway, that phrase is not in any of our founding legal documents. It was written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter.
Trick question: there is no founding legal document. That phrase originated in an 1802 letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptist congregation of Danbury, CT. The Danbury Baptists were concerned that the federal government was going to establish a particular Christian denomination as our official government religion, and Jefferson was assuring them that they had nothing to fear.
Legal document? It wasn't . . .it was in a letter from Jefferson to hell if I know.
There's no "legal" document codifying "separation of church and state" into law. It's not in the US Constitution or any of the Amendments (the 1st Amendment merely states Congress shall not establish an official state religion--it doesn't mean society will be free FROM religion!). It was mentioned in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to some Baptists, and ever since some folks think it's a law, when it's not.
chicopanther
None. It appears in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson after the Constitution had been ratified.
Ok ... I thought that was a trick question! I couldn't recall it in either the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence.
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