Separation Of Church And State Supported In The BIBLE???

So I stumbled across this book-on-CD at The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County called The Hebrew Bible by Professor Lawrence H. Schiffman of New York University. I've been listening to it for the last several days and it has been relatively interesting, although it has been something of a review for me as I scrutinized Judaism pretty heavily for the six years immediately following the Great Blue Ash Tornado of 1999. What I was finding most fascinating is Professor Schiffman's unwillingness to draw conclusions about a great many topics. For instance, although conceding that there is none of the archealogical evidence one would expect associated with the Exodus, it also doesn't make a lick of sense that a group of people would BRAG about having been slaves to make themselves look better. In other words we've still got a mystery on our hands.

However, the real mind-blower came almost at the end. Professor Schiffman was talking in some detail about how the Bible contributed to Western culture, and specifically to the thinking of the Framers of the Declaration and the Constitution. Professor Schiffman seemed to be saying that you couldn't form the notion of inalienable rights without your having picked up the notion from Genesis of God creating man with individual dignity.

But then he let loose with a HUGE thought that I don't think I've ever heard expressed before - "Anyone who observes our civilization can see that even the division of church and state is itself a reflection of the significance of biblical tradition in our society."

Professor Schiffman goes on to say that this concept follows from the Biblical idea of the dignity of the individual and the right of free choice.

Whoa.

That's heavy.

Can anyone point me in the direction of any other thought along these lines?

Is it possible one could actually confront a Thumper with chapter and verse from the BIBLE supporting the separation of church and state???