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© The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
Saturday, 07/06/2002
Section: Religion Faith & Values Letter: B Page: 1 Words: 1010

Jefferson letter has unusual history

'Wall of separation' wasn't only thing on president's plate

By GAYLE WHITE/Staff

With the long Independence Day weekend still under way, Americans are celebrating Thomas Jefferson's most famous document, the Declaration of Independence. Few Americans can cite another important piece of Jefferson's writing, his "Letter to the Danbury Baptists." But that epistle, 200 years old this year, provided one of the best-known phrases in the country's civic debates --- the "wall of separation between church and state."

Two centuries later, the meaning of the metaphor is still discussed.

Does it mean Americans shouldn't pledge allegiance to "one nation under God"? Can taxpayer money pay for private education in religious schools?

Yes to both, according to two of the most recent controversial court decisions on the role of religion and government.

In one case last week, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled 2-1 that the words "under God" --- inserted into the pledge in 1954 at the height of the Cold War --- violate the Constitution's separation of church and state. After a huge public outcry, one of the judges issued a stay on the decision until the case can be reviewed. Also last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tax funds can be used to support school vouchers, even for religious schools. The court's 5-4 split is evidence of the degree of disagreement over the issue.

How church and state ought to relate "is obviously a source of real social division in America today," said Brooks Holifield, a professor of American religious history at Emory University, "particularly when it comes to close judgment calls on how to apply the Constitution."

Divisions were equally emotional when Jefferson wrote his letter.

Religious liberty was not the only subject of disagreement in the New England of Jefferson's day. There was also the matter of cheese. The two subjects are somewhat related.

Baptist evangelist John Leland --- a big supporter of the First Amendment to the Constitution --- was disturbed to learn that his friend Jefferson was serving what he determined to be inferior cheese at the White House.

Thus it happened that Leland and some companions delivered to Jefferson on New Year's Day 1802 a 1,200-plus-pound round of cheese, 4 feet in diameter and 18 inches tall, as a gift from the cheesemakers of Cheshire, Mass.

The giant cheese ball was intended as "a mark of the exalted esteem" Leland's largely Baptist community held for Jefferson. An accompanying letter praised the president for his support of liberty, including religious freedom.

The concept of freedom from state interference in faith was especially important for the New England Baptists, who represented a minority faith in an area dominated by Congregationalists.

Like the Baptists of Cheshire, Mass., Baptist leaders in Danbury, Conn., appreciated Jefferson's opposition to state-supported religion.

In October 1801, some of their leaders had written to him to express their opinion that "Religion is at all times and places a Matter between God and Individuals" and "That no man ought to suffer in Name, person or effects on account of his religious Opinions. . . ."

They hoped the concept of full religious freedom, already in place in Jefferson's Virginia, would be extended to all states. The First Amendment was regarded at that time as relating only to federal matters. With the cheese in the pantry and Leland's visit on his mind, Jefferson sat down that New Year's Day to reply.

He agreed with the Danbury Baptists, he wrote, that "religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God." He went on to say that he regarded with "sovereign reverence" the prohibition against a government-established religion and the guarantee of free expression of faith contained in the First Amendment.

By including those principles in their Constitution, Jefferson said, Americans were "building a wall of separation between Church & State." The Danbury Baptists probably had their own interpretation as they eagerly read the letter from their president. For their descendants in the faith, there is disagreement about exactly how high and porous Jefferson meant the wall to be.

Take the Supreme Court's school voucher decision.

Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, praises the court. "I'm opposed to any direct government funding of religion," he says, "but this is not assistance to churches or church schools. This is assistance to parents who then decide how they're going to use it."

Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, thinks the decision was a mistake.

"A Jeffersonian understanding would suggest that vouchers are unconstitutional," said Walker, whose advocacy and educational organization serves about 14 Baptist groups in Washington. "The government should not take my tax dollars to pay for your religion, and shouldn't take your tax dollars to pay for my religion." On the California panel's Pledge of Allegiance ruling, the two agree. They say it was wrong.

Jefferson meant to establish a wall "between the institution of the church and the institution of the state," said Land, "not to say there could be no religious expression in the public square."

Walker concurs. "Inclusion of these two words in the pledge does not create a constitutional crisis but, in many ways, a tempest in a teapot." The fact that the discussion continues long after the exchange of mail between Connecticut and the White House shows that Americans take their Constitution seriously, said Walker.

Tensions, even conflict, over the principles incorporated in Jefferson's famous phrase are inevitable, he said.

"We will never get to the bottom of it all," Walker predicted, "but we will continue in an ongoing conversation about how to apply those principles in a way that satisfies those goals we set out to achieve as Americans."

Graphic Type: Photo Caption: Thomas Jefferson's "church and state" stance is still debated.

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