Most Notable Quotations of 2010 (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Fred -- I don't disagree with the idea that conservatives will misquote
the Founding Fathers to their own political ends (and I hope you don't
disagree that political groups elsewhere on the spectrum do it as well).
And I don't disagree that the constitution/1st amendment do lay out
strong foundations for the separation we now enjoy (and I use "enjoy" in
multiple senses).

But I hope you aren't characterizing what I originally posted as a
misquotation (or O'Donnell's original exchange, for that matter).
"Separation of church and state", as a phrase/quote/whatever, doesn't
appear in the Constitution or the 1st Amendment.  And the level of
separation that people like Barry Lynn (of Americans United for
Separation of Church and State) advance is not consistent with what the
founding fathers wrote down in 1776 - 1789, or what they practiced.
(And that's not to say it is a bad idea.  I'm all for keeping my church
out of govt, and my govt out of my church -- "Render unto Caesar " etc.,
etc.)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Shapiro, Fred
> Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 10:38 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Most Notable Quotations of 2010 (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Most Notable Quotations of 2010 (UNCLASSIFIED)
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> -
>
> 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
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> 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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>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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