There has been a long debate on the separation of church and state and whether it is in the Constitution and what the Constitution meant in the 1st Amendment. There are a lot of

opinions on this and even case law on this topic but this is what I believe the Founding Fathers meant in the 1st Amendment when they wrote down:

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.

If you read this and interpret it the way it is written to me it means that the U.S. Government can’t establish a United States religion. Most of the people that fled Europe came to this country for religious freedom. They left the Old Country because they were being forced to be in the Church of England, They wanted to worship God the way they wanted to. They did not want the Government to force a religion on them. The founding fathers put this in the Constitution to prevent the government from forcing anybody to practice a certain religion but also not to prohibit anybody from practicing their religious beliefs freely. That is covered in the second part where it states, “or prohibiting free exercise thereof”. I believe that this was put in there to keep people from prohibiting a person or group of people from practicing their religion when and where they want.

As you can see, nowhere in the 1st Amendment does it say that the government has to keep a

separation of church and state, this all came about on October 7, 1801 when Thomas

Jefferson received a letter from the Dansbury Baptist Association expressing their concerns about their religious freedoms. They were being persecuted because they did not belong to the Congregationalist Establishment in Connecticut. Jefferson responded to reassure them that he also believed in religious liberty and said in part:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which 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.

A lot of people have taken this to mean that people can’t pray in school or in Government building or any place that is owned by the Government. I think all it means is you can’t force anybody to participate in any religious programs anywhere and that the Government will not endorse a certain religion but at the same time the Government can’t restrict a certain religion.

People should not be forced to pray in school or anywhere else but what gives the school a right to deny that person the opportunity to pray if they want to. If a group of students want to get together and pray and make banners to hang up at a football game with scripture on it, well why should they not be able to because one or two students feel offended by it. I think that by stopping this group of students from expressing their views they are violating their 1st

Amendment rights, the government prohibiting them from their religions freedom and also their freedom of speech. The school is not forcing anybody to make the banners so how is this a case of separation of Church and state.

My real point here is why is it that in America today a few people who get offended stop what another group wants to do. What if one day a group of 10 students at the University of Alabama are offended by the brutality and worship of Alabama Football. These 10 students go and file a law suite against the University of Alabama that the game of football offends them and they do not want a state run University supporting it. If this were to happen everybody would say “ don’t go to the game, nobody is forcing you to watch it”. But there are sign’s up all over town advertising Alabama football. So what I am getting at is should these 10 students being offended by the game of football ruin it for the thousands who really enjoy it.

So should a few students who are offended by a banner at a football game win and infringe on the rights of the other students who want the banner.  These few students should be told “don’t look at them ignore them”. There are things all over TV and in magazines that offend me so I do not read those magazines or watch those shows.

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say there must be a separation of church and state. Its states that the government will not establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise of a religion. In my opinion I think that when the government tells kids or grown ups that they can’t practice their religion by hanging up banners at high school football games, they are breaking their 1st

Amendment rights, the kids are not breaking the rights of others. I will say again that I do not think anybody should be forced to attend church or any prayer group at school, but you should not stop the ones that want to attend for the fear of offending the few. I really do not see how a scripture from the bible or people praying can offend anybody.