Letters: Jefferson was clear about church and state

ISSUE | CHURCH & STATE

Jefferson was clear

President Thomas Jefferson was extremely cogent of what he was writing when he used the term "wall of separation" in his letter to the Danbury Baptist Church in 1802 ("Twisted meaning," Thursday). The second paragraph reads:

"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. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."

He was reiterating clauses of the Bill of Rights and further explained quite clearly, "thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

|Gloria Schor Andersen, Voorhees, amgovern@aol.com