This is backstory. I'm Peter Onuf. When the first federal Congress established

the separation of church and state, the nation wasn't prepared for what happened

next. Americans started embracing all kinds of religion. People like the Wilkinsonians,

the Osgoodites, the Cockerites. There's a group called the Screaming Children

that Chris Cross is Ohio. While religious freedom was enshrined in the

Constitution, government officials haven't always practiced what they preached. In

1903, a Mormon senator faced four years of congressional hearings before he

could be seated. There comes a point in Smith's testimony where they ask him,

do you believe in obeying the law of God or the law of the land? From

controversies over court-hastinativity scenes to conscientious objectors in

wartime, the complicated history of church and state today on backstory.

Major funding for backstory is provided by the Shia Khan Foundation, the National

Endowment for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation,

and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. From the Virginia Foundation for the

Humanities, this is backstory with the American History Guys. Welcome to the

show, I'm Brian Ballot and I'm here with Peter Oniff. Hey there, Brian, and

Ed Ares is with us. Well, hello gentlemen. Let's begin today with a holiday

fable. For decades, if you visited the town of

Leesburg, Virginia, in December, you would see a nativity scene on the

courthouse lawn right downtown. The crash featured life-size statues of the

Virgin Mary, baby Jesus and the three wise men gathered around the manger. It

had set there in front of the courthouse each holiday season for years.

...