Only $20 million is available to build Trump’s Wall.  Apparently, it will be built of Cheetos.

The White House says Kellyanne Conway had no “nefarious motive” in plugging Ivanka’s junk.  She also had no brains.

Today’s blog topic is the discussion on the origin of the separation of church and state in the Constitution and its subsequent interpretation throughout the centuries.

Article VI of the United States Constitution states: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”  The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,”

It has often been said that the country’s founding fathers intended the United States to be a Christian nation.  This notion is not supported by any historical documentation.  The majority of the country’s founders, including Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison, considered themselves outside of orthodox religion.  It was actually Jefferson who coined the term “separation of church and state,” indicating that the church needed to stay out of the state’s business and vice versa, and that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God.”

In 1947 the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this in a decision which stated: “The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church.  Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, all religions, or prefer one religion over another.  Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.”

In 1981, Senator Barry Goldwater made a speech in which he stated, “By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars…We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn’t stop now.  To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic.”

It is even more imperative in today’s environment for this country to adhere to the Constitution.  Can you imagine what would happen if the government was sanctioned to commit religious intolerance.  It would be, well, Nazi Germany!