Les Jones

Politics > Jeff Cooper on the Separation of State and Other Institutions

Jeff Cooper on government separation:

Certain observers have recently raised a point about Thomas Jefferson's insistence on "a wall of separation between church and state." What Mr. Jefferson intended was the avoidance of a state church, such as the Church of England, but certainly not the abolition of any religious observance on government land.

More pertinent today might well be a wall of separation between state and school. We may not wish to be taught how to think by clergymen, but to me it seems much worse to be taught how to think by politicians.

Damn that's a good point. Another fine argument for school vouchers. No sane person would support a state church, paid for by compulsory taxes, with mandatory attendance. Yet we have state schools, paid for by compulsory taxes, with mandatory attendance.