Letter: The founders, and church and state

Some people need to stop fooling themselves in the debate on the separation of church and state and the right of religious leaders to use their pulpits to support a political cause ["Religious leaders endanger tax status," Letters, Dec. 3].

It is comical to hear people say that the founders stressed or emphasized or even founded our nation on the concept of separation of church and state. This is false. The founders forbade Congress from establishing a religion, and that is all our Constitution says about the matter.

They further protected the free exercise of religion, which is often overlooked.

Subsequent court rulings have expanded on the scope of separation to the point where we see it today. Please recall that these same men who went on to write that Constitution also attended church services where many clergymen preached in favor of or against the Revolution, a highly political issue of the day.

People need to read the writings of our founders as well as study history and forget the talking points they mistake for facts.

Mike Cisek, East Islip