Washington and Lee law professor Sam Calhoun published an article recently in the online edition of the W&L Law Review on the separation of church and state. The article, titled “Separation Of Church And State: Jefferson, Lincoln, And The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Show It Was Never Intended to Separate Religion From Politics,” is based on a speech Prof. Calhoun gave at W&L’s Institute for Honor symposium in March 2018.
In the essay, Prof. Calhoun argues that it’s perfectly fine for religious citizens to openly bring their faith-based values to public policy disputes. He demonstrates that the Founders, exemplified by Thomas Jefferson, never intended to separate religion from politics. Focusing upon Abraham Lincoln’s opposition to slavery, he shows that religion and politics have been continuously intermixed ever since the Founding. Emphasizing the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., he argues that no other reasons justify barring faith-based arguments from the public square.
The piece is a SSRN top-ten download in two different categories: (1) Law, Politics, and the Media; and (2) PSN: Other Political Theory: Political Philosophy.
