Seperation Of Church and State

SolaGratia and others commenting on this debate:
The phrase, "Separation of Church and State" comes from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association when they were concerned that a national denomination would be forced. (i.e if the president was a baptist, everyone would be) Jefferson said that that wouldn't be the case, that there would be a "virtual wall of separation of church and state"
But Jefferson cannot be considered the expert on the constituion since he was in Europe at the time the constitution and the bill of rights was being debated and ratified. If you look at the library of congress you can see what was said at the first constitutional convention. During the months that the first amendment was being debated, the phrase "separation of church and state" was never mentioned. You would think that if it was the intent, or that is what they implied, it would have come up at least once.

That's true. Didn't the phrase come from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to some concerned Presbyterians who thought a national church was being established?

JokerDude & Kannonuk4,

I think we need to clear a few things up here; the United States' Constitution does not provide for the seperation of the Church and State, anywhere. The *only* item in our supreme law about church and state is where it states that the U.S. government will make no law establishing a national religion. Rights can not taken away from any U.S. citizen by the church as rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and cannot be abridged without the consent of the governed. That said, the church is free as any other entity or individual to press for further expansion of beliefs within our representative democracy as directed by the people.

oh i just realised that oops i really screwed up big time with this one oh well im new to the sight and was not paying attention i appologise and resign for not paying close enough attention

kannonuk4 you are pro separation of church and state, not con.
I could not believe they put explanations beside pro and con but now i see that this is not enough for some people