What Thomas Jefferson Really Meant—and Why It Still Matters for Faithful Voters Today
Even though the phrase cannot be found in the Constitution, “separation of church and state” has become not just a popular slogan, but is commonly accepted as a fact.
Unfortunately, this is often misunderstood by the average American because it has been used by advocacy groups on the Left to remove nativity scenes, crosses and any expression of faith, especially the Christian faith, from public places. But the Founders never intended to exclude religious beliefs from any involvement with the government.! As a Judeo-Christian voter, this affects more issues than you might realize.
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For example, when the Supreme Court ruled that a public high school football coach must be allowed to say his personal prayer on the 50-yard line after games, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stated, “The decision significantly erodes the separation of church and state in public schools.”
Or take the issue of abortion. The advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State asserts, “abortion bans violate religious freedom and church-state separation. Abortion is a church-state issue.”
Religious liberty and protecting innocent human life are just two hotly debated issues crucial to many voters when choosing candidates. You also likely take them into consideration when holding elected officials accountable — from the president to your school board and district judges.
For this reason, it is important to understand what Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the famous phrase, meant by “a wall of separation between church and state.” That phrase is not found in the Declaration of Independence. It is not found anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. It is not even found in the Federalist Papers but only in a personal letter written by Thomas Jefferson many years after the Constitution was ratified.
In 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut wrote a letter to President Jefferson, expressing their concern that they might not be free to follow their Baptist beliefs without interference by officials in their state.
Although he was overseas serving as United States Minister to France during the drafting of the Constitution, Jefferson nevertheless communicated with the framers through written letters and was a staunch advocate for a Bill of Rights. It is with that experience and background that he was able to answer the letter from Danbury and affirm the First Amendment. He wrote back, “that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”
Notice this exchange of letters was initiated by a church, concerned about intrusion on their faith by the state. Jefferson’s “wall,” properly understood in context, is actually good news. It simply asserts what the First Amendment already set in stone: that the government cannot, first, make a law to establish a particular religion; or, second, make a law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
This “wall” was not intended to keep religious values and principles out of government — it was to keep government from dictating a specific state religion!
It should also be noted that President Thomas Jefferson instituted and faithfully attended weekly religious services that were held in the U.S. Capital building. If his intent was to separate faith from the government, would he have attended a church service in the Capitol building just two days after that letter was penned?
Later, when conceiving the structure for the University of Virginia, he envisioned a rotunda that would not only be used for academic study but also enable “the students of the university to attend religious exercises with the professor of their particular sect…”
iVoterGuide’s mission of equipping people to vote wisely and to stand up for biblical values means we want to see laws that are based on principles such as the sanctity of human life, justice, impartiality, responsible stewardship and religious liberty. We don’t want to “wall” them out. Neither did America’s founders, including Thomas Jefferson. Such laws benefit everyone, regardless of their beliefs. They may even be championed by people who do not believe in the God of the Bible.
With a proper understanding of what Jefferson meant, we are not ashamed to champion biblical principles in the public square. Neither should you, the voter, be ashamed to vote according to biblical values.
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Debbie Wuthnow is the president of iVoterGuide, a division of AFA Action, and a member of the Board of Directors of AFA Action. She joined iVoterGuide in 2011 as a data analyst and was named president in 2018. iVoterGuide is a one-stop resource for candidate ratings and election information. In 2022, iVoterGuide’s expert researchers gave an in-depth analysis — and overall rating — for 13,000+ candidates in 5,190 races nationwide. Additionally, iVoterGuide offers election dates, registration deadlines, polling locations and other information needed to help Americans vote wisely and identify candidates on the ballot who share their values.
