Republican congressman slams colleague's call to end separation of church and state

A Republican congressman slammed GOP colleague Lauren Boebert's recent call to end separation of church and state in the US, warning: There is no difference between this and the Taliban. Adam Kinzinger, a US representative for Illinois, said on Wednesday that we must oppose sic the Christian Taliban. Kinzinger, who is on the committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol, was referring to comments that the Colorado Republican congresswoman made at a church in her state. Boebert spoke at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt about the separation of church and state principle, a tenet of the US constitution.

Boebert said that the church is supposed to lead the government. The government isn't supposed to lead the church. That is not what our founding fathers intended. I am tired of this separation of church and state junk that is not in the constitution. Boebert also remarked that it was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like they say it does, and that was a remark that prompted applause. The extreme rightwing politician regularly makes comments that foment the culture war, she opposes gun control, questions the efficacy of vaccines, and the 2020 election outcome.

Boebert was alluding to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson, who was president at the time, sent to a church organization. In this correspondence, Jefferson said that the American public had built a wall of separation between Church and State the Hill said.

The Bill of Rights amendments, the first 10 US constitutional amendments, as they tried to confirm the fundamental rights of US citizens, were ratified on 15 December 1791 despite Boebert's remarks about the letter. That means they were before the letter.

The first amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, states: Congress shall not make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the exercise of the press, or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people peacefully to gather, and petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. The Establishment Clause The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School explained that this clause prevents the government from establishing an official religion and prohibits government actions that favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from favoring religion over non-religion or non-religion over religion. The US Supreme Court, which now has a majority of conservative justices, has indicated an openness to permitting religion in the public sphere. The panel rejected a Maine statute that barred religious schools from receiving tuition assistance from public money, the Hill noted.

The justices also ruled in support of a one-time high school football coach who was suspended for praying with players at the 50-yard line after games. In her dissent on the ruling, liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor said: This court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the framers fought to build.