Con:
The main argument used for the separation of church and state is Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut in 1808:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinion, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
Another important document that makes clear the intent of the founding fathers is Article 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli which clearly and unequivocally states “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.” “[The treaty’s] authorship is ascribed variously to George Washington, under whom the treaty was negotiated, or to John Adams, under whom it took effect, or sometimes to Joel Barlow, U.S. consul to Algiers, friend of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, and himself no stranger to the religious ferment of the era, having served as a chaplain in the Revolutionary Army. But the validity of the document transcends its authorship for a simple reason: it was ratified. It was debated in the U.S. Senate and signed into law by President Adams without a breath of controversy or complaint concerning its secular language, and so stands today as an official description of the founders’ intent.” . The fact that this was an official document signed and ratified by the United States Government and can be traced directly to the founding fathers shows irrefutable proof that while the founding fathers may or may not have been devout Christians at various times in their life and in their papers, their official positions clearly show a desire to keep religion and government separate.
