"I just know there's a fact in there someplace! Errrr... what I just said!"

"Can we get real? There is nothing conservative about these so-called “conservatives.” They don’t want to preserve or protect our governing institutions — the core idea of conservatism extending from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater. They are radicals, intent on wrecking these institutions to impose their ideology on everyone else." Robert Reich, 'How To Handle Radical Republicans', today, smirkingchimp.com

There are easily millions of gullible dummies, historical revisionist fools and twits who make up the population of the U.S.. But they don't achieve the station of a U.S. House Representative like high school dropout and fruitcake Lauren 'Bimbo' Boebert. In her latest episode of a public brain fart, she appeared at the Christian Center in Basalt, CO to burp out this ignorance:

"I am tired of this separation of church and state junk that's not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like what they say it does."

Well, maybe it means nothing to a hopeless, ignorant bimbo who believes QAnon rubbish but it did mean plenty to the Danbury Baptists Association to whom it was written in 1802 - by none other than Founder Thomas Jefferson. That letter is shown in its entirety below:

To mess. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful & zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions,

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. adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience,

I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th. Jefferson Jan. 1. 1802

The nitwit Boebert's take is typical of the Religious Right's minions, as the website of Americans United makes clear, e.g.

Religious Right groups often spread misinformation about the letter in an attempt to discredit its importance. To set the record straight and understand why the letter is important, it’s necessary to read first the Danbury Baptist letter to Jefferson and understand why they sent it.

Religious Right groups frequently assert that the Baptists wrote to Jefferson because they wanted him to issue a proclamation calling for a day of fasting and prayer or because they were alarmed over a rumor they had heard that a national church was about to be established. These assertions are not true.

The Baptists wrote to Jefferson to commend him for his stand in favor of religious liberty and to express their dissatisfaction with the church-state relationship in Connecticut. Jefferson considered using his reply to explain why he, as president, refused to issue proclamations calling for days of fasting and prayer. Jefferson’s attorney general, Levi Lincoln, recommended against this, so Jefferson used the letter to make a statement about the importance of church-state separation.

The full letter of the Danbury Baptists to Jefferson can be obtained at the AU website,

JeffersonDanburyBaptists.pdf (au.org)

Boebert's biggest error, perhaps, was in conflating the religion of the Founders (Deism) with Christian Theism. This then leads her to rail against the very idea of church-state separation in favor of a meddlesome theocracy. By now in high dudgeon, before a starry-eyed peanut gallery, she thus proclaimed:

"The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is how our founding fathers intended it."

But they never intended any such thing because they were deists. Strictly speaking, deism treated in its orthodox and traditional manner is only one step removed from implicit atheism. In the Deist view an innominate, impersonal force created the cosmos - but then detached from it - so there's no further personal involvement. Or any basis for theocratic hegemony such as she wants to see in her febrile, high school dropout brain.

The Deist God is analogous to an intelligent child who makes a toy with a gear wheel, and the toy has the ability to move after being wound up and released. Thus, the child makes the toy, winds it up, releases it down the sidewalk, then walks away never to glance at it or its final outcome, destination. Shocking? Perhaps. But the Founders never conceived of an eternally hand-holding entity that would intercede and involve itself in its creation every second of every day.

Finally, the ratification of the Treaty of Tripoli, e.g.

Treaty of Tripoli - Wikipedia

Put the final stamp of secularism on the national entity which was the United States. As noted above in the Wikipedia entry, the key words of the Treaty are:

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries"

Will Boebert ever become a sensible, informed citizen and acknowledge this? Doubtful, given how she revels in her ignorance and inciting outrage - like too many bimbos and Reepos are wont to do in this mentally fractured Pandemic era.

See Also:

Religious Right