There are two common views on talk radio in the US, both of which I believe are lacking.

Conservatives:  Separation of Church and State was created to protect the church from the state.

Liberals:  Separation of Church and State is to keep the church out of the public forum, and expunge all mention of “God” from public life.

I have been on a history kick recently in my reading, concentrating on the founding fathers.  The works of James Madison are particularly telling regarding how “Separation of Church and State” was intended since the Constitution and the First 19 Amendments to the Constitution were Madison’s handiwork.

There is no question that Madison wanted to protect the state from the church by taking the power of the sword from the church’s hands.  Madison had a fear of the Anglican Church since the authority of that church was the king of England.  He was terrified of the US winning the Revolution, but then finding itself oppressed by England once again because of the dominance of Anglicans in the public life of this country.  His proudest creation was the First Amendment which prohibited this from happening.

Also, the war of 1812 was telling of Madison’s attitudes about the role of religion in the government.  He received tremendous criticism from the clergy of this country for not praying and calling a time of fast during the war. Madison stated that it is not the role of the president to lead the country in prayer, and if people were going to pray, they would do it on their own.

Madison envisioned the United States as a secular nation, not a Christian nation, which allowed tremendous freedom for religion. 

However, while Madison wanted to protect the state from religion, he also wanted to protect religion from the state.  He was a devout Christian man, and he wanted to make sure that he was free to worship God as he saw fit, not as the Anglicans saw fit.  This is the second reason for the First Amendment:  to protect the church from state interference and from the oppression of other faiths.  

Lastly, Madison recognized that religion is important to the life of the country, so it should not be removed from the public forum.  Isn’t it interesting that immediately following the phrase in the First Amendment that the government cannot “prohibit the free exercise” of religion, is a section about freedom of speech.  These are co-joined in Madison’s mind.  Religion is covered under this freedom of speech, which means that if a person has the right in a public forum to talk about sex, abortion, and politics, the same freedom applies to religion.   Religious talk in a public forum is not an establishment of religion.  A specific example from the headlines every year that gets liberals and conservatives fighting is a valedictorian who mentions “God” in a speech at a public school.  Schools are so terrified by potential lawsuits that they forbid religious talk.  This ban is clearly contrary to the First Amendment’s intention.  Mentioning God in a public forum is not a seditious and oppressive act to be censored by the school, but one covered by that student’s freedom under the First Amendment.