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Separation of Church & State: What the Founders Meant

2007

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Synopsis

David Barton's short book "Separation of Church & State: What the Founders Meant" argues that the modern interpretation of the phrase "separation of church and state" has been twisted far from the original intent of America's Founding Fathers. Barton contends that the expression does not appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution and traces its popular usage back to Thomas Jefferson's 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists, where Jefferson described the First Amendment as building a "wall of separation" primarily to protect religious liberty from federal government interference rather than to banish faith from public life.

The author draws on primary sources, including the words and actions of the Founders themselves, to show that they sought to prevent the establishment of a national church like England's Anglican model while encouraging the free exercise of religion in both private and public spheres. According to Barton, the First Amendment was designed to restrain only the federal Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, leaving states free to handle religious matters as they saw fit for over 150 years until mid-20th-century Supreme Court rulings changed that dynamic.

Barton further illustrates how the Founders viewed religion—particularly Christian principles—as essential to moral society and good governance, citing their involvement in religious activities and statements affirming faith's positive role. He contrasts this with later judicial decisions, especially starting in 1947 with Everson v. Board of Education and the 1962 school prayer ruling, which he says led to a dramatic removal of religious expressions from public institutions and a corresponding decline in certain societal metrics. The book positions the current aggressive secular application of "separation" as the opposite of what the Founders envisioned, urging readers to reclaim the historical understanding through original documents to support religious freedom in American life today.

Overall, the work serves as a concise, quote-heavy defense of the idea that faith and government were meant to coexist cooperatively under constitutional limits, not be rigidly divided in a way that excludes religion from the public square.

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