In 1802, Thomas Jefferson received a letter from the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut which was very concerned about the fact that the government might affect the free expression of their faith by formally establishing a state church. read more
" during a debate against opponent Chris Coons, as he was making an argument about the teaching of religious ideas in public schools. read more
The separation of church and state is a philosophic and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the nation state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular state (with or without legally explicit church–state separation) and to disestablishment, the changing of an existing, formal relationship between the church and the state. read more