There’s no mention of a wall in the Bill of Rights, but throughout history Americans built one between church and state. The phrase actually comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, when he was president. The Baptists wanted to know why he wouldn’t proclaim national days of fasting and thanksiving, as Washington and Adams had done before him. Jefferson wrote there must be a “wall of separation between church and state.” The height, thickness and porosity of that wall have been debated ever since.
For some, the wall means: Thou shalt have no hint of religion in any public space. Others say the Ten Commandments are not strictly religious. They are the bedrock of the country’s moral and legal foundation.
Guests:
Charles Haynes, Senior Scholar, Freedom Forum First Amendment Center
Michael Novak, Director, Social and Political Studies, American Enterprise Institute
Rick Scarborough, President, Vision America, organizing rally to keep Ten Commandments monument in Alabama state court building
Razi (Bobby Blockum) Hassan, Assistant Imam of Masjid Tauhid and President of the Muslim American Society of Huntsville in Huntsville, Alabama.