The concept of separating church and state is often credited to the writings of English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Roger Williams was first in his 1636 writing of “Soul Liberty” where he coined the term.
Locke expanded on this. According to his principle of the social contract, imaged below, Locke argued that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control. For Locke, this created a natural right in the liberty of conscience, which he argued must therefore remain protected from any government authority. These views on religious tolerance and the importance of individual conscience, along with his social contract, became particularly influential in the American colonies and the drafting of the United States Constitution.
This is the original cover of Thomas Hobbes’s work Leviathan (1651), in which he discusses the concept of the social contract theory.
In the past, the wall of separation metaphor has been used to silence people speaking from a religious perspective in the public marketplace of ideas. We see this in court cases limiting the rights of students to express their faith in public school settings. We see this in public forum cases where religious groups want to use public forums on the same terms and conditions as secular groups. The courts are restricting that ability.
The tide is turning, as we see on today’s Supreme Court, where right-wing Christian religion has chipped away at the once sturdy bricks in the wall of separation between church and state, replacing those valuable bricks of integrity with bricks made of sand and one-sided religious agendas pontificated by political push.
The religious right is not so holy in its hatred of non-white, not-straight, non-preexisting US citizen. Those underlying deceptions now have infiltrated agendas supposedly pretending to support the very citizens they are hurting.
It took until Thomas Jefferson came to the rescue to stop the Baptist religion from being a state religion. Danbury, Connecticut was collecting taxes from people in religion and paying it to a this “state religion” until all the other churches complained of this unfair practice, resulting in the common practice that all religions do not have to pay taxes now.
Religion and politics can work in a symbiotic relationship, helping humanity in homelessness, hunger, and efforts to help the general public, as long as religious bias does not interfere with the human rights of all USA citizens, not just some of them.
God Bless Everyone Everywhere