Separation of church and state: The real meaning

I really couldn't have said it any better:

When the laws were written to maintain a seperation of church and state there were good reasons behind them. They were designed to allow people to worship or not worship as they saw fit and to keep the government out of their religious beliefs and business. The law was designed to prevent national laws on what religion you can and cannot practice. Over the years we have completely lost sight of this purpose and have morphed the law into in some ways the opposite of its original intention, especially were Christians in America are concerned.
From the c y b e r :: e c o l o g y blog

The idea of separation of church and state was put forward by Thomas Jefferson to explain the First Amendment, which says this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Jefferson's phrase was used in a speech he gave as president to a meeting of Baptists:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

How people translate this to mean you can't exercise your religion is really beyond me.