The Founders Meant to Keep Government Out of the Church, Not God Out of the Government

The 4th of July makes us think of our independence and freedoms. And recent legal battles over religious liberty in the U.S.A. raise serious questions about the freedom to worship in America. So when our Founders came up with the First Amendment, were they trying to keep the government free from religion, or religion free from government?  

These days, the phrase "wall of separation between church and state" has come to mean keeping God or His believers from having a big effect on government and public life. But that’s far, far from what the Founding Fathers were thinking of when they were separating church and state.

They were afraid of what so many of the Old World countries had: a religion established by the state as its one true religion, that would tyrannically rule over the faith and conscience of every citizen.