331: The separation of church and state

The boys drink and review a disappointing homebrew, then discuss the 1st Amendment and the separation of church and state. The well-known phrase actually does not come from the constitution, but from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists. The founder's main concern was to prevent the federal government from imposing a religion on the individual states, which, at the time, often had their own established religions. Today we apply the first amendment to both federal and state governments, but that wasn't true for the first several decades of the Republic. The constitution has two relevant clauses: the establishment clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a state religion, and the free exercise clause, which prohibits Congress from prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The country has been trying to find the proper between these two ideals. The boys discuss.