In a recent article entitled "Does the Covenant School's bond issue have a prayer?" newspaper publisher Jeffrey M. Peyton considers the ACLU's challenge to the Albemarle Industrial Development Authority bond issue to Covenant School and the 'wall of separation' between church and state (The Observer, May 10-16, 2000).

After humbly replying that "no such wall actually exists within the Constitution" and dismissing the ACLU's contention that the Covenant School is "pervasively sectarian", Peyton continues with his discussion of the intention of our founding fathers and the wall of separation asserted by the ACLU (Jeffrey M. Peyton, The Observer, May 10-16, 2000).

"The founding fathers," he says, "did not in any way intend for government to be wholly secular. In fact, most of the original 13 state constitutions required public officeholders to be outspokenly religious."

"For example, take Delaware's constitution, Article 22, dated 1776: 'Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust, shall also make and subscribe to the following declaration to wit: I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the holy ghost, one God, blessed for evermore, and I do acknowledge the holy criptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.'"

"I am not saying that non-Christians should be barred from public office. I am saying that one cannot believe that the nation's leaders would intertwine religious faith with state government only to explicitly bar it from federal government."

"Let me come to my point. Thomas Jefferson penned the phrase 'wall of separation' in a private letter. He was in France at the time he wrote it. His intention was not to limit religion in a nation founded on the principle of religious freedom; his intention was to point out specifically that the First Amendment protects religion from encroachment by the government."

"I'll quote him again, so there can be no doubt: 'No power over the freedom of religion ... is delegated to the United States by the Constitution."

"Covenant School should get its bonds, and the Albemarle Industrial Development Authority should be commended for issuing them. This lawsuit is just one of a long line of frivolous attempts to override the will of the people and the intentions of the framers of the Constitution, and we can hope the Court sees it for what it is" (Jeffrey M. Peyton, The Observer, May 10-16, 2000).

AN ASIDE

"Over the summer, the Virginia College Building Authority approved a bond-issue to finance new buildings for Pat Robertson's Regent University. The ACLU of Virginia and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), representing Virginia citizens, challenged the bond issue in Richmond Circuit Court. Judge Randall Johnson blocked the bond issue, holding that the bonds would violate the constitution because Regent University is 'pervasively sectarian' (Rebecca Glenberg, ACLUVA, electronic mail, January 30, 2000).

"The Virginia College Building Authority filed a Petition to Appeal in the Virginia Supreme Court, to which the ACLU and AU responded. The Virginia Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision as to whether they will hear the appeal. In that case, VCBA is represented by the law firm of McGuire Woods Battle & Boothe, which also represents the Industrial Development Authority of Albemarle County in the Covenant School case" (Rebecca Glenberg, ACLUVA, electronic mail, January 30, 2000).

If you have comments about the 'frivolous' nature of ACLU's appeal to prevent the Covenant School's use of public bonds to finance construction, please send them to george@loper.org and the most representative will be posted.

For other views of Thomas Jefferson on the place of religion in society, see "The Different Religions Received Into That State."

To Date, I have received comments from David RePass, Mary Ellen Sikes, and Jeff Sobel.