Letter from M. Stanley Bugge

Church and State Must Be Separate

The separation of church and state is not a recent political slogan or an attack on faith. It is a deliberate principle established by America’s founders to protect both religion and liberty from government overreach.

Our founders were clear on this point. James Madison warned in his 1785 “Memorial and Remonstrance” that even minimal government involvement in religion inevitably corrupts both institutions. Thomas Jefferson later described the First Amendment as building a “wall of separation between church and state,” a safeguard born from experience, not theory.

Perhaps most striking is Article 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, ratified unanimously by the Senate and signed by John Adams. It states that “the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” This was not controversial—it was a clarification to the world that America was governed by law, not theology.

The First Amendment states plainly that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This does not diminish religion; this preserves it by keeping belief a matter of personal conscience rather than political power. Government neutrality toward religion ensures that no citizen is elevated—or marginalized—based on faith.

A government with the authority to promote religion today can just as easily restrict it tomorrow. Religious freedom flourishes best when the government neither endorses nor opposes belief. Defending the separation of church and state is not about erasing faith from public life. It is about preserving freedom.

M. Stanley Bugge
Otego