13 Jan Separation of Church and State
The phrase, “Separation of Church and State” does not actually appear anywhere in the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. It was coined by Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote in 1802. “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 & State.” It was a metaphor Jefferson used to describe the role of the First Amendment to prevent the government from establishing an official religion for the entire nation.
