Commissioner Chris Hall at a Collier County Board of Commissioners meeting in July. (Image: CCBC)
Oct. 20, 2023 by David Silverberg
Collier County Commissioner Chris Hall (R-District 2) today stated “There is no separation of church state,” flatly rejecting the Constitution of the United States and calling into question his ability to impartially govern the Florida county.
The statement came at the end of an otherwise unremarkable “Coffee with Chris Hall” event for constituents at the Collier County Public Library Headquarters in North Naples.
The 75 or so people in the audience heard presentations by George Yilmaz, director of Public Utilities, Kari Ann Hodgson, Solid Waste director, Michael Bosi, director of Planning and Zoning, and Trinity Scott, Transportation Management Services director. All discussed the functions of their offices and plans for the future.
Following the presentations, Hall took the floor. He said that he had run for his position in order “to do what’s right.”
“I’m frequently asked how I know what’s right,” he said. “There is no separation of church and state. The Bible tells me what is right.”
He went on to argue that an 1802 letter by President Thomas Jefferson, in which he expressed “sovereign reverence” for the separation, was actually intended to protect religion from government. (The full letter is at the end of this article.)
This argument is increasingly being used by religious conservatives to overturn the “wall of separation” between the private practice of religion and secular governance. In Collier County it has also been cited by public school board member Jerry Rutherford (District 1) to justify his efforts to inject religion into county public schools.
A hint of Hall’s promotion of religion came at the outset of the meeting when he apologized for not having a prayer and a pledge of allegiance at a previous meeting. At this meeting the pledge was made and an invocation was recited by an audience member who concluded the prayer, “in Jesus’ name.”
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The Jefferson Letter
On Jan. 1, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to members of the Danbury Baptist association in Danbury, Conn. It used the phrase “a wall of separation between Church & State,” which has widely been interpreted ever since as confirming the completely separate functions of religion and government in the United States. The full text, as provided by the US Library of Congress, is below:
To messers. 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 and 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 & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
Liberty lives in light
© 2023 by David Silverberg
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