Our country’s separation of Church and State does not mean a separation from our religious faith, traditions, and morality.
In fact, morality is central to our politics and our constitutional republic. Our country was founded on Judeo Christian values. U.S. President John Adams noted that our constitution was written and intended for a moral society. U.S. President George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, and reassured those who had fled religious tyranny that life in the new nation would be different, that religious “toleration” would give way to liberty, and that government would not interfere with individuals in matters of conscience and belief.
The separation was never total, and our religious freedoms are a “freedom to” not a “freedom from.” Throughout our history, we have relied on our faith and religious traditions in some of our hardest and most trying times to sustain us as a country. We are living in those times today. During the Civil War we added “In G-d We Trust” to our coins, and during the height of the Cold War, it became our official national motto.
So, while we have no national “Church,” and we separate for the protection of both Church and State, this does not mean we can sustain ourselves with no national faith at all. Indeed, we need faith for the betterment of society.
