(RestoreAmericanGlory.com) – On Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pushed back against the idea of a secular state that is independent from the church. As he stated, the founding fathers intended to have faith play a “big part” in government.
During an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Johnson argued that the separation of church and state was misunderstood by the majority of people and that it was a “misnomer.” He added that this idea is actually derived from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson rather than from the writings in the Constitution.
The Speaker pointed out that what Jefferson had been describing in his letter was that they did not want to have the state “encroach upon the church” and not that they were looking to not have “principles of faith” affect public life. He added that what they had been looking for was the exact opposite.
The letter that Johnson referred to was written in 1802, and it had been sent by Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists Association of Connecticut over the concerns expressed regarding religious freedom. As Jefferson pointed out, the First Amendment prohibited anyone from not being allowed to freely exercise their religion and created a “wall of separation between church and state.”
However, Johnson claimed that faith is a big part of the tradition of what it is to be an American and that “morality” is necessary for them to have “accountability.” As he pointed out, this was what he believed was needed more than the “establishment of any national religion.”
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