I read with great interest the recent article from the Associated Press regarding the removal of monuments to the Ten Commandments from Alabama state courthouses and public schools because they were considered violations of the "Constitution's ban on government endorsement of religion".

      The First Amendment of our Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.." It prohibits government support for an official church, like the Anglican Church in England, but it also prohibits government interference with religion. The phrase, "separation of Church and State" is considered by some to explain the religion clause of the First Amendment even though the phrase is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.

      The original use of the "separation" phrase was from an 1802 Thomas Jefferson letter responding to Connecticut Baptists who were concerned about a rumor that Jefferson was going to establish a national denomination. He assured them they need not fear; that the free exercise of religion would never be interfered with by the federal government. His "wall of separation between church and state" was to protect the church from interference by the government, not the other way around.

      Separation of church and state currently means almost exactly the opposite of what it originally meant. The modern interpretation of the First Amendment has so prejudiced our way of thinking that many people don't realize how much the Founders actually wanted the government to encourage religion, especially Christianity.

      President George Washington said in his farewell speech: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensible supports...Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." Washington also said, "the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation which disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained." John Adams, our second president asserted, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

      Jefferson asked: "And can the liberties of a nation be though secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God: That they are not to be violated with His wrath?" Jefferson believed that God, not government, was the Author and Source of rights and that the government, therefore, was to be prevented from interference of those rights.

      The Supreme Court has been expanding the reach of the First Amendment and Jefferson's "wall" metaphor to sever government from any endorsement of religious faith. Since 1971, there have been multiple rulings that violations of the First Amendment include displaying nativity scenes on public property, and praying in public schools and sports events. It is important to understand that these rulings are a distortion of the First Amendment. The men who wrote the First Amendment voted to subsidize religious groups with federal tax dollars for such activities as evangelizing the native Americans. Within a year of writing that "Separation" letter, Jefferson gave federal money to evangelize native Americans and used state funds to set up a department of Divinity at the U of Virginia and declared that students "would be expected to attend religious services."

      The current tradition of separation of church and state that restricts the freedom of religion needs to be recognized for the detestable deception that it is. We need to return the First Amendment to its original use--as a tool for restricting government interference with the freedom of religion. Used as it was originally intended, it is a protection for the right of the faithful to strengthen, encourage, and be a light to both believers and non-believers in school, in the workplace, and anywhere they find themselves. It allows them to optimize the work that faith requires of them. According to our Founding Fathers, this is essential for the very survival of this nation.

Annie Bukacek MD