Most Notable Quotations of 2010 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Shapiro, Fred]

The First Amendment prohibits an established religion, a very important separation of church and state, and religious tests are also prohibited by the Constitution.  What is more open to debate is whether the Constitution envisioned a complete separation of church and state, what Jefferson called a "wall of separation."  But clearly the concept of separation of church and state is in the Constitution.  Conservatives often criticize me for my position that there is a big category of misquotations by people furthering conservative political agendas, but the fact is that there is a vast body of big distortions of Founding Fathers quotations promulgated by conservatives arguing that the United States was intended to be an explicitly Christian nation.

Fred Shapiro



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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mullins, Bill AMRDEC [Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 11:14 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Most Notable Quotations of 2010 (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

>
> At 10:01 AM -0500 11/22/10, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> >I would add to the list of quotations:
> >
> >Where in the Constitution is separation of church and state?
> >Christine O'Donnell
> >
>
> To be fair, it's not in the Constitution proper but in the First
> Amendment.  Perhaps Ms. O'Donnell  hadn't gotten that far, or skipped
> the boring First to get to the good stuff in the Second.
>

To be really, really fair, "separation of church and state" isn't in the
Constitution proper or in the First Amendment.  Both allowed some
interaction between church and state.

"Separation of church and state" comes from a letter by Thomas
Jefferson.  Not a bad rule, but it isn't in the Constitution.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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