House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), under fire for holding strong religious convictions and defending his faith in Jesus Christ, said in an interview last week at CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the understanding of the “separation of church and state” that presently exists in the culture is a “misnomer.” Dictionaries define “misnomer” as something that is “wrongly or inaccurately applied or used” to describe a concept. Here, the concept is the proper role of government in a society that is based on religious freedom.
At the time it was written, Thomas Jefferson’s response to a letter from the Danbury Baptists was straightforward:
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 legitimate 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 ºmake no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,º thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
For generations this made perfect sense. In a constitutional republic it is assumed that the sovereign citizens will have little need for or interest in governmental interference in their personal affairs, especially their religion. They will hold themselves to be personally responsible for their actions without the need for an overseer. And their actions spring from an understanding and acceptance of the Holy Scriptures. Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president, said:
The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teaching of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.
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