Separation of Church & State

Excerpt from:  "Crazy Sh*t Republicans Say"

''Do you know, where does this phrase 'separation of church and state' come from? It was not in Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists.... The exact phrase 'separation of Church and State' came out of Adolph Hitler's mouth, that's where it comes from.  So the next time your liberal friends talk about the separation of Church and State, ask them why they're Nazis.''

- Glen Urquhart, Tea Party Congressional Candidate from Delaware, (04/2010)

Well you’re kind of right.  The exact phrase is not in Jefferson’s letter, but all of the words are, with the exact same intention of “separation of church and state”.  Jefferson was just one for elegant prose.  The original text: 

“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."

He used the word “between” not “of”.

You caught us.  We liberals made the whole thing up.  Actually the Supreme Court did, the phrase was quoted by the US Supreme Court first in 1878, probably as an interpretation of the Constitution’s position on this issue.  After all, such things are their job.  


Excerpt:  "Crazy Sh*t Republicans Say"