The Wall of Separation?
Revisiting the true intent behind the First Amendment
Are we making things more complicated than the need to be?
Is not the "wall of separation between church and state" fundamental to our First Amendment rights and values? Does religion belong in the public square?
Like most ethical issues, the answer to these questions cannot be distilled into a simple yes or no.
The history church-state separation is fascinating and instructive. It also reveals it to be far less complicated than we tend to make it.
Isn't that true of so many of our seemingly intractable problems?
Does it matter that Hugo Black, the judge responsible for canonizing the wall of separation into American law, had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan?
Does it matter that American University law professor Daniel Dreisbach observed that, “Indeed, this wall has done what walls frequently do — it has obstructed the view. It has obfuscated our understanding of constitutional principles"?
In life and in business, we run the risk of overcomplicated and oversimplifying. Ironically, we can even manage to do both at the same time.
Please take a look at this article about the interplay of religion and government in the evolution of American law.