As the Supreme Court continues to force a Christian right-wing agenda down America’s throat, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) wrongly argued this week that the church is supposed to control and direct the government.

The separation of church and state is a basic cornerstone of our nation’s foundation. The First Amendment of the Constitution literally makes it clear that the government cannot pass any law respecting an establishment of religion. This is because Americans can practice any religion or none at all as they choose. It also means the government must be secular to avoid favoritism or bias in favor or against any one religion.

Thomas Jefferson even made that clear in a letter prominently mentioning the separation of church and state.

“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declares 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 and State,” Jefferson wrote.

An overwhelming majority of the Founding Fathers shared the same sentiment. They even once barred Catholics from serving as public officials, which means a majority of the Supreme Court Justices wouldn’t be sitting on the bench today.

But Boebert still proclaimed that the church should be in control of the government during a speech on Sunday.

“I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk — that’s not in the constitution,” Boebert lied. “It was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like they say it does. The reason we had so many overreaching regulations is because the church complied. The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it.”

Here’s the video via Twitter:

Again, Boebert is lying about the Constitution. None of the Founders ever said that the church is supposed to direct the government. They feared that kind of control because of the rampant persecution and religious tyranny that had gripped Europe for centuries.

Just to give Americans an idea of what Christian Nationalism would look like, extreme right-wingers who presumably support Boebert declared that they intend to make the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale a reality, but even worse for women in the wake of the fall of Roe v Wade.

“Christian nationalism is on the rise and people are thirsty for it, hungry for this!” Million MAGA March white nationalist Vincent James claimed. “And we are the Christian Taliban and we will not stop until The Handmaid’s Tale is a reality, and even worse than that to be honest.”

This is precisely the religious tyranny the Founding Fathers sought to prevent in the United States by writing a Constitution that kept church and state separate. The wall is there for a reason. And Republicans are violating it by trying to topple it.

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