The history of “President’s Day” is a convoluted one. (Isn’t everything with government?) Legally, for the FedGov, it is officially still “Washington’s Birthday” and just the calendar date was changed back in 1971, from 22 February to the third Monday in February. (Many States have officially changed the name; the common title reflects the popular belief that it also replaced any celebration of Honest Abe’s birthday (12 February) honored “all POTUS.” Yup, even Nixon.)

But since most of us treat this like “All Presidents’ Day” (and absolutely nothing to do with the idea behind All Saints’ Day), let us look back at one of the few POTUS that has some really good things to say about him. Thomas Jefferson. In particular, let us look at TJ and the First Amendment. (This is a rewrite of an old commentary on TPOL.)

History has a funny way of getting twisted by people who weren’t there. When a distortion has centuries to fester, they become very dangerous. Such is the case of the Danbury Baptists.

In October of 1801, Connecticut still had an official State religion: the Congregational Church (the old Puritan establishment). That would be so until 1818. So, if you are a Baptist, a Methodist, a Disciple, or an Episcopalian, you must go beg (petition) the local justice of the peace to get a certificate to worship separately. He doesn’t have to give one to you. But, your taxes still go to the Congregational Church. Sounds like you are a second-class citizen, no?

The Danbury Baptist Association, (twenty-six congregations in western Connecticut) is getting nervous. Their “privilege” of assembling is precarious. See, they aren worrying that the Church is going to take over the government. No, they are terrified that the government (State and, potentially, fedgov) is going to crush their religion. They needed to know that the heavy hand of the federal magistrate wasn’t coming for them.

So they write to TJ. He writes back on January 1, 1802. He agrees with them and paraphrases the First Amendment, telling them that the American people had 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 & State.”

Now, modern secularists, especially those who hate the christian faith, love that phrase Many (if they could) would hang it like a neon sign over every courthouse and school board meeting in the States.

We believe they have the nature of his letter totally backwards.

Jefferson wasn’t building a prison to keep God out of public life. No, he was building a fortress to keep the State (and FedGov) out of the meetinghouse. It’s a shield for the churches, not a muzzle. Now, the progressives (regressives) protest: they say letter was no private musing. Well, they are correct. Jefferson drafted his reply consulting both Attorney General Levi Lincoln and Postmaster General Gideon Granger. The letter was published in newspapers across the country.

He intended it to be a political statement. So let us take it as just that. What does it actually say? It says that the wall protects the citizen from the government. Every clause in that letter places the restraint on the magistrates, not on the prebyters or minister.

See, the First Amendment is a negative right: it tells governments what they can’t do. It handcuffs the States and FedGov. It doesn’t tell you what you, a citizen (by yourself or with others) can do. When the founders wrote those words, they were acknowledging that power seeks to consume everything, and the conscience must be guarded against the appetite of kings. Whatever we call them.

But the modern Regressives twist Jefferson’s letter to mean that religious expression must be scrubbed from public life. This is actually doing the very thing the Danbury Baptists feared…using the State to dictate the terms of your and my existence.

In Connecticut, the Congregational established religion taxed “dissenters.” Connecticut denied them full civic standing. Today? The mechanism is different: legal threats (and costs), cultural pressure, and administrative restrictions and prohibitions. But the coercion? Still the same.

An imperfect man, Thomas Jefferson still pointed out this valuable fact. TPOL honors him for that, regardless of what else is claimed.

A footnote:

For those of us walking the narrow path of faith in God, this goes deeper than just constitutional law. We don’t demand religious liberty just because it’s in the Constitutions. We demand it because coerced faith is dead. Why? God is the ultimate author of liberty. When God placed Adam in the Garden, He placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil right there. No high-voltage fence or wall around it. God gave Adam the ability to rebel. God didn’t want robots. He created people with the gift of free will and the dignity to choose. 2nd Corinthians 3:17 tells us, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

A government that tries to force religion… or force the absence of it… is acting against the nature of God Himself. It demonstrates its origin in rebellion to God. Any ruler who does so reaches into the domain of the soul. He has ceased to govern and begun to tyrannize.

What Jefferson point out is that the wall exists to ensure that when we say “Yes” to God, it’s our own voice speaking. No forced religion (or non-religion). It ensures that our worship is an offering and that we come to God as servants…not slaves of the state. So we fight for this wall to keep the world from corrupting how and when and where man meets his Maker. But we don’t have to hide.

So let us tear down the myth (and others like it). Let us rebuild the wall as intended: a rampart against tyranny. Let us reject to idea of the state as master, and turn it back into a servant…

and recognize that God remains the King.