Prior to the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, in many colonies, the average citizen was unwillingly taxed to support the town religion. Membership was not optional and many were punished for failing to attend public worship. Punishment was severe for heretics; and a heretic was anyone who did not adhere strictly to the teaching of the church. A common-sense disagreement might land a man in the stockade, or far worse.

In his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist, Thomas Jefferson, who said that religion was a matter “which lies solely between Man and his God” and that the “legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions.” In other words, a person can maintain any belief he or she wants as long as exercising those belief(s) do not impinge upon the rights of others. Separation of church and state was solely a Jeffersonian brainchild. In the Danbury letter, he said that a “wall of separation” between government and religion must exist if a free and democratic nation is to thrive.

This separation was so important to Jefferson that it became the first clause of the first amendment to the constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

In addition to electing a new president on Nov. 4th, several states had constitutional amendments on their respective ballots. California, one of the eight states, had measures which confronted morality issues. I have labeled them the “God Props.”

These God Props are attempts to inject religious belief into the legal system. Those beliefs are steeped in Biblical writings which date back to circa 1200 BCE. Stem cell research, abortion, the right to choose if you want to live with a debilitating illness and same sex marriage are all controversies with biblical origins.

The opposition to same sex marriage, for example, may be traced to Jewish captivity in Egypt. It was common in neighboring Mesopotamia, and to some degree in Egypt, for prisoners of war that were enslaved to be publically sodomized as both a symbol of dominance and obedience. It is likely that many of the Jews were publically sodomized as well as a disciplinary measure.

According to biblical history, the Jews left Egypt during the reign of Ramses II (1292–1225 B.C.E.) after many generations of slavery and being subjected to the caprice of their captors. Once free, they could enact their own laws. There are many biblical references to homosexuality being an “abomination in God’s eyes.” The first is in Geneses 19:4-8 where Lot offers his virgin daughters to a mob of crazed homosexuals in an attempt to protect angels sent to warn Lot of Sodom’s looming destruction. If you doubt the imprint of slavery upon a people ask African Americans what they think, who are not less than four generations removed from being slaves themselves.

The first secular laws prohibiting same sex marriage originated in Rome after Constantine declared Christianity to be the state religion. In 438 Theodosius II, Christian emperor of Rome in Constantinople enacted the Theodosian Code which was the first law in modern history to prohibit same sex marriage, according to Ebsco Host. Prior to this time, in the Greek, Roman, and even Native American cultures, same sex marriage was accepted, according to enotalone.com.

Stem cell research is perhaps the most confusing of the religiously based controversies. The confusion lies in that evangelicals and many Protestant religions generally believe that science is secondary to faith; they trust in God for conception. In the event, however, an evangelical couple is unable to conceive, it does not invalidate their faith to rely on in vitro fertilization. The dichotomy lies in that they oppose stem cell research based upon the belief that once an egg is fertilized it becomes human life. It is common with in vitro fertilization to fertilize many more eggs than is needed to conceive, and once conception is attained, the remaining eggs are discarded.

Roman Catholics are opposed to in vitro.

There are numerous states that have attempted to inject religious beliefs into law. For example, according to religioustolerance.org, Article 19 Section 1 of the 1874 Arkansas Constitution says "No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court."

The U.S. Supreme Court in Torcaso v. Watkins affirmed the separation of church and state and prohibition of establishment of state religion. In 1961, the governor of Maryland appointed Torcaso as a notary public. At the time, in order to get an appointment to any state office in Maryland required the appointee to make “a declaration of belief in the existence of God.” Torcaso was an atheist and refused to make the declaration, so his appoint was revoked. Ultimately the case ended up before the Supreme Court where they unanimously rejected the Maryland law because it violated the First Amendment by attempting to establish a state religion, and the 14th Amendment which makes federal law binding on states.

The recent passage of Prop 8 in California has already lead to a plethora of litigation. Naturally those with religious beliefs should be able to vote their conscious. Forcing a belief system upon an unreceptive populace, nevertheless, can only lead to treachery. Injecting religious beliefs into state constitutions violates the most fundamental principal which the founding fathers of this country used to frame our constitution. The separation of church and state is what divides America from religious states like those in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The West has had its renaissance. We do not need a reformation.