The Myth
There’s a chapter in David Kupelian’s The Marketing of Evil that hits harder the older you get. He breaks down one of the most successful marketing campaigns in American history — the idea that our Constitution demands a “separation of church and state.”
We’ve all heard that phrase. We’ve been taught it like gospel truth. But here’s the problem — it’s not in the Constitution. Not once.
The First Amendment says:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
That’s it. The Founders weren’t trying to remove faith from government — they were making sure government couldn’t control faith. They had just escaped a monarchy that dictated religion from the throne. The goal was to protect the freedom to worship, not to build a wall to keep religion out of public life.
How the Phrase Was Marketed Into Law
Kupelian explains that the phrase “separation of church and state” originated in a 1802 letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists. Jefferson used the phrase “wall of separation” to calm fears that the federal government might one day interfere with churches.
But that single phrase — never meant as law — got picked up and repackaged.
By the time the Supreme Court decided Everson v. Board of Education in 1947, Jefferson’s letter was being treated like part of the Constitution. Later, in Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), entire legal tests were built around it.
Over time, what started as a metaphor became a mandate. The courts, the schools, and the media all repeated it. And like any good marketing campaign, repetition created belief.
Kupelian calls it emotional conditioning — turning a phrase into a moral truth by saying it long enough and loud enough that it feels sacred. That’s how this myth took root.
Faith Recast as a Threat
Once the phrase gained traction, activists and academics used it to push religion further out of public life.
Prayer in schools disappeared.
Nativity scenes vanished from city squares.
Teachers were told not to mention God.
All justified by a slogan that never had legal standing to begin with.
Kupelian compares it to modern advertising — you don’t sell an argument; you sell a feeling. Redefine the language, reshape the moral ground, and before long, faith itself is branded as offensive.
Charlie Kirk’s Warning
Before his assassination, Charlie Kirk spoke boldly about this very issue. He often reminded audiences that “separation of church and state” was a fiction — a tool used to drive Christianity out of the public square.
He said it plainly:
Our Founders never intended to create a godless government.
They expected faith to guide it.
Whether you agreed with his style or not, Kirk understood the strategy. He knew how cultural movements market ideas until they replace truth.
His death left a void in that conversation, but his warning remains.
Why It Still Matters
The damage of this false narrative is everywhere. Kids are afraid to pray in class. Teachers think they’ll get fired for mentioning God. Local governments are told that displaying the Ten Commandments is “unconstitutional.”
None of that came from our Founders. It came from decades of distortion — backed by repetition and fear.
The same Constitution that protects speech protects faith. The same amendment that guards protest also guards prayer.
Faith built this nation. The belief that rights come from God — not government — is the foundation everything else rests on.
Maybe it’s time we stop repeating the slogans of those who want to erase that truth and start remembering who we really are.
Because the wall they built wasn’t meant to protect freedom.
It was meant to control it.