[StewiesMom]

The right to personally bear arms is not in the constitution either, but crazy right wing extremists and pro gun people still love to pretend it is.

In the United States, separation of church and state is governed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and by legal precedents interpreting that clause.

There are a variety of views regarding the degree of separation that should exist between church and state. Some, often referred to as secularists, assert that state should be kept entirely separate from religion. Others assert that the state ought to be permitted to become involved with religion (such as by giving financial support), but ought not establish one religion as the state religion, require religious observance, or legislate dogma. Others, sometimes known as theocrats, assert that the state should be inseparable from religion, and advocate an established church. A related topic is civil religion.

That is true, the phrase "separation of church and state" doesn't appear in the Constitution. There is a problem, however, in that some people draw incorrect conclusions from this fact. The absence of this phrase does not mean that it is an invalid concept or that it cannot be used as a legal or judicial principle.

The principle of a "religious liberty" exists behind in the First Amendment, even if those words are not actually there. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
The point of such an amendment is twofold. First, it ensures that religious beliefs - private or organized - are removed from attempted government control. This is the reason why the government cannot tell either you or your church what to believe or to teach. Second, it ensures that the government does not get involved with enforcing, mandating, or promoting particular religious doctrines. This is what happens when the government "establishes" a church - and because doing so created so many problems in Europe, the authors of the Constitution wanted to try and prevent the same from happening here.
Can anyone deny that the First Amendment guarantees the principle of religious liberty, even though those words do not appear there? Similarly, the First Amendment guarantees the principle of the separation of church and state - by implication, because separating church and state is what allows religious liberty to exist. wikipedia/about



Kids should NOT (typo before) pray in public schools in an organized manner. No one should push their religion on me and I'll glady go to work on Christmas if it means that the religious right is no longer ruling this country.