Oh, But For the Wisdom of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson on the Separation of Church and State

The United States would not have survived as a nation, had it not been for the wisdom of these two founding fathers when it came to understanding the need for the complete separation of church and state, and for the absolute necessity of making it a constitutional principle directly related to the freedom of conscience and of placing religious practice in a separate category from politics where, even though Christianity would excercise considerable influence, it would not have the power to drag the nation into disaster.  

This is one of the reasons why America is a great nation, and does not need to be made great "again."  

Christianity, when it was accorded the political power of the state under Constantine, became the cause around which some of the bloodiest and deadly events in human history was centered.  Most instruction in world history in the United States is too biased to acknowledge this fact, or teach the truth about it.  It is soft-peddaled, passed over, ignored and in many cases, what is taught is an outright lie.  It is, in  fact, almost impossinle to name a war or a season of war that did not have Christianity as the catalyst behind it.  

Ignorance ravaged the European continent, ignorance caused by the church's perpetuation of a society based on an aristocratic order of human beings, an anti-Biblical philosophy that denies one of the core truths claimed by Christians found in Genesis 1:27.  It's difficult to compare the damage done to human existence by religion, it is by far the main cause of the violence and war that the culture has witnessed over the 2,000 years since Jesus introduced the gospel.  But compared to other world religions, Christianity is certainly no less violent, cruel, misguided or contrary to its own principles that Islam or Hunduism or Buddhism.  

People Came to America to Escape Religious Persecution, and Then, They Persecuted Each Other on the Basis of Religion

Jefferson, Madison and the other founding fathers had a front seat from which to observe religious persecution in America, perpetrated by those who belonged to the dominant religious majority on the minority.  The Puritans in Massachusetts did not tolerate any divergent beliefs, eliminating their perceived enemies by controlling the magistrates and making doctrinal differences and preaching without the state's permission a crime.  As a result, dissenters were driven out of the colony, the most notable being the Baptists who established Rhode Island for their own religious liberty.   

Catholics persecuted in Protestant England came to Maryland to escape the torment, only to be subject to Protestants who were just as cruel as those in England had been.  And it was Madison's observation of the treatment of Baptists in Virginia at the hands of the state Anglican church, that prompted him to write the establishment clause into the first amerndment.  Even with these things written into the law, Baptists were concerned that the denominations and churches with the biggest influence would dominate and control the government.  In his Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut,Thomas Jefferson used the phrase "wall of separation" to assure the Baptists that their religious consciences were protected by the first amendment establishment clause. 

The history of Christianity in America is also rife with violence, conflict and hatred.  The walls between denominations and churches in this country are based on everything from which Bible translation in English is the "preserved word of God in English" to whether sprinkling, dunking or pouring is the right way to baptize someone.  Baptists and Catholics experienced persecution.  So did the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, some of whose leadership was martyred defending the beliefs of their conscience.  

And when given the opportunity to do so, those peaceful, pioneering Latter Day Saints, or Mormons, turned on the United States and rebelled against the authority of the federal government, dressing as Native Americans and attacking wagon trains travelling across Utah to California.  One particularly brutal massacre involve the murder, by axe, of over 125 settlers in a wagon train, known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre.  

The Christian nationalist country envisioned by the Heritage Foundation and conservative Evangelicalism would be as violent and deadly as the Hundred Years War.  Their interpretation of the Bible is skewed beyond recognition when it comes to the practice of the values of the Christian gospel.  They prefer an Old Testament perspective where a vengeful god orders the murder of his enemies.  That's anti-Christian, demonic and evil, but it's the doctrine in which they have wrapped themselves.  And even with church-state separation that most Americans do not understand, or of which they are just ignorant, it's hard enough to hold the line.  How bad would it be if we didn't have that very clear Constitutional principle they can do nothing about.  

It's not hard to see at all where we would be if we did not have this constitutional protection.  Just listen to the rherotic spewed from conservative Evangelical pulpits.  They seethe with hate.  Everyone is their enemy.  They would justify not only murder, but cruel, painful, violent murder, claiming it was done on God's instruction.  

Hopefully we can outlast this push to nullify the Constition and bow down to an idol.