Argument...........Church and State should not be separate Essay

Argument...........Church and State should not be separate - Essay Example In the very early years of the American nation, the First Amendment as part of the Bill of Rights was considered to be a wall of separation between the church and the state. Prior to the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, it was thought to be otherwise, that is, religious freedom means integration of church and state. It was Thomas Jefferson who first expounded that the First Amendment is intended to mean separation and hence as a solid constitutional principle (Hamburger 109). Discussion History is replete with justifications why there was a need for the Church to separate from the State. Prior to the 1800s, perhaps the most valid argument for a separation was their argument for a Church to be pure, that it should not be sullied with worldly affairs of the state. Only a fringe minority of Europeans and Americans saw fit for a separation because it was by then viewed by this small group as a sure way to purify the church beyond what was thought ordinarily to be possible; this gr oup also distrusted the clergy for its abuses (ibid. 21). But the general direction of this short paper will be to argue otherwise, that the Church and the State are better off not separate. In this discussion, I will argue why both are better off joined than being separate which goes against the conventional wisdom held by many for years.