Want to drive a right winger insane? Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Paine on religion

[Bruce Wayne]

11. That's true. In other words, they wanted a wall of sorts

Madison, in the years after Virginia disestablished the Episcopal Church, commented on how much the church improved, and how much less corruption there was in the Episcopal clergy, once it had been disensnared from government. Up to the late 1700s, Anglican/Espiscopal priests were paid by the state (usually in bales of tobacco paid as taxes by Virginians of all faiths to their loca parish). What Madison discovered was that when state power and church office were mixed, there were a certain number of priests who were just in it for the profit. When the church offices became self sustaining--meaning all people paid fewer taxes and Lutherans, Baptists, & Quakers didn't have to pony up for Episcopalian "salaries"--the quality of the priests improved. Men got in it for the piety and for the calling, not for the weed.

I think the larger point here is that when preachers stick to preachin' and politicians stick to politickin', we're all better off.