top of page

They Already Drank the Kool-Aid

I remember the first time (as a student in 8th grade) I discovered that the "separation of church and state" was not in the Constitution. A public school teacher taught me (correctly!) that it was the "separation of the state from the Church" (not the other way around). I always get a bit queasy when someone refers to the "disestablishment clause" as the exact opposite of what it says.


While reading on a different subject, I came across this great quote once again:


The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or one god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. […] To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion…is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty.

(Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1779)

18 views

Recent Posts

See All

Knowing God (or maybe not)

I like reading the Old Testament prophets. One of the reasons is that they say so much about Christ and the Church; the problem, of course, is that they say it in a way that is often symbolic and thus

St. George Parish is Eight Years Old

Eight years ago today, I was packing for the move to here in Missouri. I had been assigned as the administrator of St. George community. There was only about fifteen other people in the community at t

"Bishop" David Waller

Imagine how my stomach sank as I read the first few words of the email: New Bishop Appointed for the Ordinariate... You may already know the rest of the words: in the UK. No, it is not referring to ou

bottom of page