October 23, 2025 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

On the 23rd of 2025, three of our members presented before the local Democrats
Club at Hill Country Retreat, out Highway 151 way. Some 65 attended. As a result of the
warm reception the speaker received, 14 new members were signed up and new
names were added to the AU–SA email list.
The featured speaker was Charles Fredrickson, a board member and minister, who
presented an excellent talk on the history of the separation of Church and State. He
explained the long history of the separation concept which started as far back as the
1500s.
Inklings of the separation concept can be found in criticisms of the Church in the
Reformation movement of Martin Luther. Another important moment occurred in
England with King Henry VIII’s breaking with the Roman Church in 1534. In colonial
America, Roger Williams, in Rhode Island, established freedom of conscience and the
idea of voluntary faith, not religion dictated by the State.
In the 1770s and 1780s the American and French revolutions embodied tolerance of
diverse religions. Today, however, the idea of “dominionism” found in Christian
Nationalism threatens our tradition of freedom of religion and separation of Church and
State.