Definition: "Intelligent Design" – an attempt to avoid responsibility. (If I can get the high school biology teacher to preach religion to my kids, then I don't have to d0 it myself.)

Once upon a time, Baptists were at the forefront of advocating the separation of church and state. I know this because I was raised in the church, my great grandfather was a Baptist minister, my grandmother's cousin was president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and one of my forefathers was a member of the Rhode Island legislature that insisted on the inclusion of the Bill of Rights in order to receive its approval for the U. S. Constitution.

There is only one reason for the mixing of religion and politics = POWER. That most corrupting of all forces that will lead even an angel of the very highest rank into open rebelion: "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven."

"What kind of people are we? Where did we come from?"

"Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion."
– John Adams (letter to Benjamin Rush, June 12, 1812)

"[T]he number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State."
– James Madison (letter to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819)

"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."
– Thomas Jefferson (letter to the Danbury, Conn. Baptist Association, January 1, 1802)

"The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."
– George Washington (letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, RI, August 18, 1790)

"The Constitution of the U.S. forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion."
– James Madison (Detached Memoranda, ca. 1817)

"We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions … shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power… we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society."
– John Adams (letter to Dr. Price, April 8, 1785)

"As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business government has to do therewith."
– Thomas Paine (Common Sense, 1776)