You realize separation of church and state is not actually in the Constitution? The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion", which sounds more like "Congress can't make one" than "Congress can't have one". It wasn't until the twentieth century that separation of church and state was added to the First Amendment by the Supreme Court.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/respectre·spect
–noun
1.
a particular, detail, or point (usually prec. by in ): to differ in some respect.
2.
relation or reference: inquiries with respect to a route.
3.
esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability: I have great respect for her judgment.
4.
deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy; acknowledgment: respect for a suspect's right to counsel; to show respect for the flag; respect for the elderly.
5.
the condition of being esteemed or honored: to be held in respect.
6.
respects, a formal expression or gesture of greeting, esteem, or friendship: Give my respects to your parents.
7.
favor or partiality.
8.
Archaic . a consideration.
–verb (used with object)
9.
to hold in esteem or honor: I cannot respect a cheat.
10.
to show regard or consideration for: to respect someone's rights.
11.
to refrain from intruding upon or interfering with: to respect a person's privacy.
12.
to relate or have reference to.
—Idioms
13.
in respect of, in reference to; in regard to; concerning.
14.
in respect that, Archaic . because of; since.
15.
pay one's respects,
a.
to visit in order to welcome, greet, etc.: We paid our respects to the new neighbors.
b.
to express one's sympathy, esp. to survivors following a death: We paid our respects to the family.
16.
with respect to, referring to; concerning: with respect to your latest request.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/establishmentes·tab·lish·ment
–noun
1.
the act or an instance of establishing.
2.
the state or fact of being established.
3.
something established; a constituted order or system.
4.
( often initial capital letter ) the existing power structure in society; the dominant groups in society and their customs or institutions; institutional authority (usually prec. by the ): The Establishment believes exploring outer space is worth any tax money spent.
5.
( often initial capital letter ) the dominant group in a field of endeavor, organization, etc. (usually prec. by the ): the literary Establishment.
6.
a household; place of residence including its furnishings, grounds, etc.
7.
a place of business together with its employees, merchandise, equipment, etc.
8.
a permanent civil, military, or other force or organization.
9.
an institution, as a school, hospital, etc.
10.
the recognition by a state of a church as the state church.
11.
the church so recognized, esp. the Church of England.
12.
Archaic . a fixed or settled income.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/thethe
–definite article
1.
(used, esp. before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an ): the book you gave me; Come into the house.
"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion"
Congress - the law making body, the part of the government that decides how the government works, without a law you can not enforce anything.
shall make no law - they will not make a law
respecting the establishment of religion - that has anything to do with religion.
because this last fragment is so dissected by people who want my kids to be made to pray to their god I will act in kind.
by the above definitions, we can infer this meaning, first off let us figure out what "the establishment of religion", actually first lets just cover "the establishment". usage of the word "the" rather than the word "an" implies reference to a singular entity, so the phrase "the establishment" refers to some existent social order, now adding "of religion" specifies which of the many establishments are being referred to.
now we are going to be brave and try and understand a bit more. we got the fragment "respecting the establishment of religion" the word "respecting" has basically two meanings, the first is to give respect (honor, reverence, etc), and while it would make grammatical sense I doubt this was the meaning in this context, because of the whole "this is what you will NOT do" part of the sentence, it seems like it would be silly for the writers of the constitution to say "congress is not allowed to say anything nice about religion", though in hindsight, maybe this would have been a good idea. so that means "respecting" in this context most likely refers to the other common meaning, which would be "having anything to do with" or maybe related to, or in reference to. so given that meaning the bit "respecting the establishment of religion" most likely has a meaning that can be paraphrased as "having anything to do with religion"
now with that established (lol) let us go back to the larger clause "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion", another way of saying this is "the part of the government that determines what can and can not be done within the territory of the US is not allowed to make it so that anything have to do with religion can be enforced upon people" this interpretation is further reinforce by the next few words "or the free exorcise thereof", this makes it even clearer that the intention here is that the government is not to interfere with private individuals in how they go about dealing with religion in their lives. the most obvious implication of this is that there will be no federal state religion and that the government cannot go into your house and tell you where you have to hang a cross or go into your church and dictate what prayers need to be said and how to say them. it would also imply that the government cannot endorse a religion, because in order to do that you would need to have a law that allows the endorsement and the part of the government that makes the laws is congress, and such a law would relate to religion so you would have a law respecting the establishment of religion, which was quite clearly identified as the sort of law we don't want to have in our country.
now the reasoning for this was that the colonies which America were founded upon had a diverse set of religions and religion and the government entanglements thereof had been a major issue of contention. there had been a lot of fighting and grief caused by one colony making an official religion and enforcing it to varying degrees upon its population. one of the key issues of contention when the federal government was being designed was no state wanted to have the heathen beliefs of that 'other colony' (oh you know the one I'm talking about) forced upon them, this part of the first amendment was made to address that issue, it is specifically to prevent agents of the government from using their positions of authority to intimidate people into converting to what ever religion they belonged to.
now, you may not believe me, you might think that my reasoning is biased and that I am misinterpreting the meaning of this clause to mean that there should be an impenetrable barrier keeping religion and government from corrupting each other. I mean, the phrase "separation between church and State" isn't anywhere in there at all,maybe that was just made up by some guy who didn't know anything about the founding of the nation. perhaps I am mistaken and this was not meant to build a wall of separation, maybe I lack the insight into the minds and times of the founding fathers and the writers of the constitution and this amendment. oh if only someone who had even the faintest involvement in the original writing of the founding documents of the United States of America would have had their thoughts recorded in some sort of permanent media... oh, wait, paper, yes and ink... if only someone would have somehow used paper and ink to communicate ideas then their expression could still be experienced today, but what are the odds that someone with inside knowledge one the meaning of that particular passage would write in more expressive terms what it meant if only someone would have written a letter to , oh, lets say some baptists lets just hypothetically say living in Danbury, and they said something along the lines of
Gentlemen, The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.
Thomas Mother****ing Jefferson
oh, wouldn't that be convenient, I mean it has that phrase "wall of separation between church and State" I mean you can't be much clearer than that right? too bad nothing like that exists...
oh, hey, chotto matte yo! it does exist! but it was probly just written by some colonial leftist marxist, I mean marx wasn't born until 16 years later, but I'm sure they were still around back then trying to destroy the constitution. I wonder who was the person who wrote that, hmm.. lets look back at it and try to figure out what subversive element would say such a thing..
Thomas Mother****ing Jefferson
hold it. Thomas "Mother****ing" Jefferson, who's that, I mean did he ever write any important documents of the US, let alone any founding documents, hmmm, I don't know, maybe he does know something, I'll have to see if there is a wikipedia article on the guy... oh, hey, apparently he's credited with writing the ****ING Declaration of Independence, apparently that's kinda a big deal, and apparently he was the third president. maybe he did know more that amendment than me after all.
hmm, and look at that, after all that text, it turns out that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion" actually does mean, and was specifically and "with sovereign reverence" intended to 'build a wall of separation between church and State". imagine that first amendment means (among other things) that there should be a separation of church and state. who knew?
