If the government tells any church what to do, people lose freedom of religion. If any church tells the government what to do, people lose freedom of religion. If anyone gains the power to enforce your own religious beliefs by law, you will regret it, because the moment the people who disagree with you outnumber your supporters, they will use the precedent you established to enforce their own religious beliefs on you.

That is why, in American history, evangelical Protestant Christians joined with Deists and secularists to vote for a U.S. Constitution that had no mention of God, that specified that there be no religious test for government office, that made clear that the government of the United States was by “we the people” – human beings – and restricted the power that human beings have over each other.

For anyone who questions this, I recommend reading the federalist papers to find out what the Founders meant by the First Amendment. James Madison was quite clear that he meant NO person’s religious ideas should be enforced on any other person.

Comments by Callia Oliphant: On the Separation of Church Law and State Law