ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses separation of church and state, a concept that emerged from the Enlightenment and was among the foremost objectives of the Founders of the American republic. So important was the idea that beliefs in religion should not intertwine with affairs of the state, the Founders, led by such historical luminaries as Jefferson, Madison, John Adams, Franklin, and Washington, in fashioning a Bill of Rights placed religious liberty first among all individual rights. The first two clauses of the First Amendment enunciated the essence of the ideal of separation, that government and religion should operate in separate realms, they should not “touch,” they should be completely mutually exclusive. The words of the First Amendment state unequivocally, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . . .”
