We emphasize, neither of the words “separation,” “church,” nor “state” appear anywhere in the 1st Amendment. Neither do they appear in any other governmental or founding document. When the ninety Founding Fathers who framed the 1st Amendment debated how it should be articulated, a process which lasted from June 7th through September 25th of 1789, records indicate that their singular aim was to limit the federal government in two specific areas. First, that the federal government would be prohibited from creating a national denomination (such as: Catholic, Anglican etc.). In fact, government nationalization of anything was viewed as non-constitutional and counter-beneficial. During the time when America was part of Great Britain, the British government could at anytime decree an official denomination to which all citizens must belong and then punish those who refused. (This is the exact same practice which is now being proposed in the health care overhaul bill, which will force all citizens and employers to participate or be fined and even jailed.) The Founders sought to prevent that evil through what is now termed the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”).

Secondly, the 1st Amendment prevented the federal government from interfering with or limiting the people’s public religious expressions. This part of the 1st Amendment is called the Free Exercise Clause (“…or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”). This clause requires the federal government to protect (rather than suppress, as it currently does) public religious expressions. This means that the federal government is constrained from and does not have the legal standing to prohibit the people’s free exercise of religion, whether expressed in private or public. It is important to note: Both religion clauses of the First Amendment were designed to limit the federal government, not the people. To be clear – First, the government could not establish any national religious conformity, and second, the government could not stop public religious expressions but must protect them. The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the 1st Amendment but perhaps more importantly it should be pointed out that a search of the official records, of their discussions on the matter, confirm that not one of the ninety Framers so much as mentioned the phrase even once during their debates, which persisted for over three months.