Nowhere in the Constitution, the highest Law of this land, does the term: "separation of Church and State," exist. Though these words do not exist, the Supreme Court of the 20th Century, but not the Supreme Court of the 18th Century, and not the Supreme Court of the 19th Century, has ruled fairly consistently for recent generations of America, that religious instruction, nondenominational prayer, and Bible reading are a violation of the First Amendment establishment clause and therefore cannot be part of public schooling.
The First Amendment actual states that: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" yet, nondenominational prayer, and Bible reading within a school, could not possibly be construed as being an actual establishment of religion, and most definitely is precluding the free exercise of it.
The significance and the hypocrisy of these Supreme Court decisions is to actually, in effect, establish a new religion in this country, propagated within our public schools, which is the religion of secularism, or the religion of non-faith in our Creator. When religion is constantly on the defensive in the public square and virtually banished in public schooling, that religious vacuum has been subsequently replaced by the government, in which, they have become, in effect, the opiate of the masses, since it is this government, that provides all the accouterments of the welfare state to the poorest and most needy, as well as providing to the general public on a local, city, State, and Federal basis, massive government facilities and institutions, that in aggregate are the biggest employer of people in this country.
The government has a vested interest in their citizens not being religious because that government does not want its citizenry to have divided loyalties as to whom and what they will serve. That is to say, that there are times in most people's lives in which two opposing sides are pulling upon each of their arms, so that, a decision must be made by that individual as to which choice is the better one to make or else they will be torn apart, of which, this government does not want its people to have that choice, for rather it would prefer that the government is the only choice, and therefore being that only choice, will not have to worry or to fear competition from religious authorities that inconveniently remind its flock that they must ultimately answer to a Higher Power, that may not be in conformance with temporal power.
This government is trying to supersede our God given conscience, and to replace such, with a conscience that only obeys what that state says is legal and proper, and that therefore stipulates that morality and ethics are not written in the hearts of man, and are not thereby found in the holy books of Scripture, but rather are determined by the Highest court of the land, in conjunction with governmental policies. So that, whatever the government says is right is right, and whatever this government says is wrong is wrong, in which, these are the laws of the land.
The government does not want divided loyalties from its people, rather it wants faithful obedience to the state, in return for money, shelter, healthcare, entertainment, protection, food, and the implicit recognition that this is the only world that matters, for all else must be discarded as antiquated distractions and myths.