Unpop Culture

I don’t normally get political because that’s not what this blog is about. But because we’ll be celebrating our nation’s independence this week, I wanted to honor the occasion by looking at two common misconceptions about the U.S. government. Here they are: There is a constitutional separation of church and state Faith-based concepts should be kept out of the public realm Let’s see if I can address these highly controversial topics in the least controversial way possible. 1. There is a constitutional separation of church and state The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a “separation of church and state”—at least, not in the sense the phrase is understood today. In fact, that particular phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution. So where did the wording come from? We find it in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association . This group of Baptists was concerned about a potential restriction on their freedom to pursue religion as they saw...