"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
― Noam Chomsky
"There is no separation of church and state. It's a fabrication. It's a fiction. It's not in the Constitution. It's made up by secular humanists. It's derived from a single letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Convention."
― Charlie Kirk
OK ...
Thomas Jefferson's famous 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists didn't invent this principle; it clarified it. In that letter, Jefferson described the First Amendment as building "a wall of separation between Church & State." The phrase stuck, and later Supreme Court decisions, beginning with Reynolds v. United States (1879) and especially Everson v. Board of Education (1947), used Jefferson's words to articulate the meaning of the Establishment Clause. Far from being a throwaway metaphor or an invention of "secular humanists," Jefferson's image of a wall was a faithful description of what the framers had already written into law.
Here's what Jefferson wrote in 1902 in that letter:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
So no, the separation of church and state is not a "fiction." It isn't something "made up" after the fact, and it certainly wasn't concocted by secular humanists. It's embedded in the very first line of the Bill of Rights, and it reflects the founders' recognition that religious liberty can only thrive when government is restrained from interfering in matters of conscience. To call it fabricated is to misrepresent both the Constitution and the intent of those who wrote it.
In analogy, consider this directive:
"Mix the blue paint with red, and paint the house."
Clearly, the house will be purple. But nowhere in the instruction does it literally say 'paint the house purple' — paint has properties, and words have meaning.
Clearly, the house will be purple. But nowhere in the instruction does it literally say 'paint the house purple' — paint has properties, and words have meaning.
Taking the establishment clause with the free exercise clause renders the same notion:
When taken together ― just as the framers intended ― you necessarily get Separation of Church and State. Lest we forget, the Treaty of Tripoli was signed in 1796 (negotiated under George Washington's administration, unanimously ratified by the Senate in June 1797, and signed into law by President John Adams on June 10, 1797).
Article 11 begins:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion..."
Not in any sense.
Though it's all been said already, what happened to Charlie Kirk was deeply shocking and awful. He was never really on my radar — I follow a number of podcasts, and while his name surfaced now and then, I never watched his videos. To me, he was more of a peripheral figure, tangentially reminding me of Steven Crowder in the way he staged debates with college students.
In the end, the real historical revisionists are those who deny what the founders put in plain sight. They misrepresent Jefferson's ideas and words, ignore the First Amendment, and pretend that "separation of church and state" is a modern fabrication. But theirs is the fiction — not the principle itself, which has been woven into our law and history since the nation's founding.
Bottom image © 2025 Mike McDowell