O'Reilly ignored First Amendment, misrepresented Jefferson's position
In his December 14 nationally syndicated column, " 'Tis the Season,"
Bill O'Reilly wrote that the "separation of church and state
argument" is "bogus" because it "does not appear
anywhere in the Constitution." O'Reilly
continued, baselessly asserting that "[i]f Thomas Jefferson were alive
today, he would mock these secular fools and then retire to his Virginia estate for
Christmas dinner." In
fact, Jefferson wrote a famous letter in 1802 in which he declared
his support for "a wall of eternal separation between Church & State"
and expressed his "reverence" for the First Amendment to the
Constitution, which mandates that "Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Additionally, Jefferson
made numerous other statements
of support for the principle of the separation of church and state. For
example:
- In a letter to
Samuel Miller, Jefferson wrote:
"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the
Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines,
discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law
shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but
from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the
United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to
assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General
Government."
- Also to Miller, Jefferson wrote:
"I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate
to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious
societies, that the General Government should be invested with the power of
effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and prayer are
religious exercises. The enjoining them, an act of discipline. Every religious
society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises and
the objects proper for them according to their own particular tenets; and this
right can never be safer than in their own hands where the Constitution has
deposited it. ...
Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells
me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States,
and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents."
- Jefferson also
believed in keeping religion out of public schools, as noted in
his statements during the passage of the Elementary School Act of 1817:
"Ministers of the Gospel are excluded [from serving as Visitors of the
county Elementary Schools] to avoid jealousy from the other sects, were the
public education committed to the ministers of a particular one; and with more
reason than in the case of their exclusion from the legislative and executive
functions. ... No
religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced
[in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect
or denomination."
From O'Reilly's
December 14 column:
Well, the Supreme
Court punted. The justices were supposed to decide weeks ago whether or not to
hear a blatant example of anti-Christian bias in New York City. But still no decision.
The case concerns
a policy by the New York City
public schools to allow displays of the Star and Crescent flag for Ramadan and
the Menorah for Hanukkah, but to ban the Nativity scene at Christmas time. The
decision makes no legal sense, as the federal courts have previously ruled that
so-called "religious" displays can appear on public property, as long
as there is no preference given to one religion over another.
[...]
But no, the
Supreme Court justices are now on their Christmas break, and have left
the country adrift once again. The anti-Christmas forces are still clinging to
the bogus separation of church and state argument that does not appear anywhere
in the Constitution. If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he would mock these
secular fools and then retire to his Virginia
estate for Christmas dinner.
— J.M.
Posted to the web on Friday, December 15, 2006 at 05:48 PM ET