A wall of separation

Happy Independence Day! This morning Morning Edition on NPR celebrated the day by reading the Declaration of Independence. They've done that for many years. It was a diverse bunch of voices from folks (including a few kids) on the National Mall.

Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin also looks at the Declaration but from a slightly different angle. He looks at what Jefferson crossed out of a working draft to tone down the religious aspects of the message, though there is a lot of religion that remains. For example, "these truths to be sacred & undeniable" became "these truths to be self-evident."

It was Jefferson who wrote, to a Baptist Church in Danbury Connecticut,

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 & State.

That gave a way to describe a key part of the Bill of Rights, much to the annoyance of those who insist our nation is really a Christian Nation.

Michigan has legalized the sale of fireworks, so my neighborhood is noisy right now. Someone nearby bought a large collection of the REALLY LOUD kind. Alas, not too many cities had time (or knew they needed) to enact ordinances about when they should and should not be used. I will head to the city display on Sunday evening.