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Which is interesting, since I've usually viewed it the other way around: protection of the church from the state.
As is the way I've viewed it. What the constitution says is "CONGRESS shall make no law . . .", which most directly means we are protected from the government doing something to us- i.e. telling us what to believe (or what not to). This is why I see the first ammendment as protecting the church from the state, not the other way around. Of course, if the church controlls the government and by doing so tells people what to believe, the result is the government violating the first ammendment by telling people what to believe. So I will agree that there is an inferred aspect of the first ammendment that protects the government from the church, but I don't think the government is protected from ALL influence of the church, only influence that would abridge people's rights to practice their chosen faith. As I read it, the wording of the 1st ammendment is prohivitive of the government directly, and religious institutions only indirectly by logical conslusion.

Of course, I am no lawyer- that's just my layman's understanding of the ammendment.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.