When, where, and who coined the term "separation of church and state"?

Answer 1

long before 1776, it was said that "the garden of the church should be protected by a high wall of separation from the howling wilderness of the world" by Roger Williams of the fair state of "Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations" Much before Jefferson

Jefferson himself had stare days of prayer and state funding of missions to the Indians, but did not favor federal or a federal 'church' like a federal church of England and preferred leaving such activity to individual states and states retained individual denominations for decades following 1776

Although such language was more than well known to the writers of the constitution, they passed over it, and used the 'establishment clause' even allowing individual states to fund their individual state denominations for decades after 1776

of course in the 20th century a secular supreme court justice named HUgo Black took the phrase out of contecxt to morph it into what it is today

Answer 2

As mentioned above, it was Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists. It did not apply to the states until the fourteenth amendment which obligated the states to fulfill all obligations under the bill of rights. The bill of rights only applied to the national government. Southern states were trying to deny blacks their Federal rights. The fourteenth amendment bound upon the states and their instrumentalities the obligation to treat Federal rights as a state obligation. States can extend rights beyond the Federal however. One state, for example, grants an absolute right to bear arms, if you are not a criminal.

Answer 3

Thomas Jefferson, 1802, describing the "wall of separation" between church and state to the "Danbury Baptists".

Answer 4

I believe the actual phrase was coined by Jefferson in a letter to a religious group--Baptists, perhaps?

Answer 5

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

Thomas Jefferson (letter to J. Adams April 11,1823)

Answer 6

Interesting question. It does seem to be a US-original, and given that they tried to get away from a lot of religious nastiness in Europe, maybe not unsurprising. I see a lot of "Thomas Jefferson" on the web but in the end it is unclear as far as I know.

Answer 7

Tiny Tim did it. He was tiptoing through the tulips at the time.

Answer 8

The US Supreme court.

Answer 9

"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine" - George Washington