I applaud Tim Allen's rebuttal (June 23) to Charles Davenport Jr.'s column, but he missed a quote from James Madison that requires no interpretation and stops Davenport's assertion about Madison in its tracks.

Madison said, "The number, the industry and the morality of the priesthood and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state."

John Worsley
Greensboro