About the Constitutionality of the separation of Church and State

Having had a couple of years of liberal craziness, we are now apparently about to get a few years of conservative craziness.  A number of the ultra-conservative set apparently haven’t really read the Constitution, though they walk around flaunting copies of it.

For example:

• In a speech in April of this year Sarah Palin said "Lest anyone try to convince you that God should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers. And George Washington, he saw faith in God as basic to life."
• Sharron Angle, a Republican candidate for Nevada Senate, has stated repeatedly that a separation of church and state is an "unconstitutional doctrine."
•  Dan Severson, Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state, said last week: "Quite often you hear people say, 'What about separation of church and state?' There is no such thing. I mean it just does not exist, and it does not exist in America for a purpose, because we are a Christian nation."
•  Republican House candidate Glen Urquhart of Delaware also questioned the separation of church and state, suggesting the phrase came from Adolph Hitler.
•  GOP Rep. Ron Paul of Texas wrote in an essay in 2003: "The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers."

Just to refresh their memories, here is the text of the First Amendment to the Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

And as for what the Founding Fathers really meant, here is what Thomas Jefferson wrote in one of his letters:

“Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, [the people, in the 1st Amendment,] 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.”