Church and State
Keeping Government Out of Religion
AT A GLANCE
• Pentagon sermons provoked liberals’ ire.
• America’s Founders wanted government out of religion, not religion out of public life.
• Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation” means government shouldn’t control religion.
• Many churches avoid talking about politics for fear of lawsuits.
“This is an egregious abuse of government power,” Patrick Elliott, legal director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said in response to the announcement by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that there would be monthly religious sermons in the Pentagon. Hegseth explained that service attendance was purely voluntary.
Elliott, however, dismissed that assurance, arguing, “If the Pentagon … can be converted into a venue for Christian worship and political messaging, then the wall between church and state is not just being breached, it’s under siege.”
This is in accord with how the First Amendment’s prohibition on the establishment of a state religion has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1960s. For example, a prayer in a public-school classroom is now viewed as the establishment of a state religion.
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