Well, I'm already at the salt mines, and I don't have much time to respond to this, but I couldn't just let Fox's comments go unchallenged...
Foxfyre wrote:Exactly Walter. That 'wall of separation' that some are so fond of using as their favorite metaphor did not come from Jefferson though it used it metaphorically in one specific instance in a letter to a colleague. The term actually came from Supreme Justice Hugo Black and has been grasped by anti-religious people as the gospel and misused prolifically by various judges ever since.
Jefferson did originate the phrase of separation of church and state, and even though it was used as a metaphore, if you read many of his writings, including the letter to the Danbury Baptists, it's clear that he meant what he said: Separate Church and State. And that intent is clearly one of the most important concepts in the constitution, as evidenced by it being in the first amendment.
Foxfyre wrote:Walter's comment about the state's attempt to 'exterminate the church' rings especially poignant right now in an era where some equate separation of church and state with keeping the Church out of sight, out of sound, out of view, with no reminders of it in any form of public life. That would be about as bad a violation of separation of Church and State as you can get--equal to a law beng passed that you all have to go to Sunday School every Sunday morning.
Separation of Church and state is not a hard thing to understand. And despite the fact that Fox wants to diminish it's significance, it's the most important concept we can hope to incorporate into governments no matter where they may be.
History is replete with examples of religion invading and corrupting government to such an extent that we really have to err on the side of solid separation, rather than fuzzy separation (which seems to be what Fox is suggesting). My feeling is that fuzzy systems work at local levels, but are too easy to exploit in large systems.