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I was having a similar debate with a friend one time and he brought up the point that "Seperation of church and state' is the biggest myth around. It doesn't say that anywhere in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights."
Well, after he said that I decided to look into it, and you know what? He was right. It doesn't say it in there anywhere. (At least not that I could find.) Anyone know where in our country's documents, it actually says this passage?
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The phrase "wall of separation between church and state" appears in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist church group. Jefferson was president at the time. The Baptists wanted Jefferson to declare national religious days, and Jefferson told them that the government must never do anything that can be construed as an establishment of religion.
The founding fathers were deists first and Christians second. They believed in God, but they didn't strictly adhere to dogma. I think Jefferson even had a heavily edited Bible - he cut out all the stuff he didn't like.
Exactly who can perform a legal marriage varies by state law.