Religious Freedom Archive

William Willams’s Letter About the Godless Constitution

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

William Williams February 11, 1788 In the American Mercury, William Williams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Connecticut, complains about the failure of the Constitution to invoke God’s Supremacy and protection. He proposes amending the preamble to call upon “the creator and Supreme Governour of the world.” Since the Federal Constitution has had so calm, dispassionate and so happy an issue, in the late worthy Convention of this State; I did not expect any members of that hon….

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Letter from William Bradford to James Madison (about religious freedom in Pennsylvania)

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

William Bradford March 4, 1774 Bradford’s college classmate, James Madison, has informed Bradford that persecution is rampant in Virginia. Bradford respond that liberty seems to be thriving in Pennsylvania. I am sorry to hear that Persecution has got so much footing among you. The discription you give of your Country makes me more in love with mine. Indeed I have ever looked on America as the land of freedom when compared with the rest of the world, but compared with…

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Diary of William Bradford at Plymouth Plantation

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

William Bradford 1630 Of Plymouth Plantation CHAPTER I It is well known unto the godly and judicious, how ever since the first breaking out of the light of the gospel in our honorable nation of England, (which was the first of nations whom the Lord adorned therewith after the gross darkness of popery which had covered and overspread the Christian world), what wars and oppositions ever since, Satan hath raised, maintained and continued against the Saints, from time to…

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The First Charter of Virginia, 1606

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Virginia May 10, 1606 The colony is established with a firm invocation of Almighty God and a commitment to propagating the Christian religion to the “Infidels and Savages.” JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. WHEREAS our loving and well-disposed Subjects, Sir Thorn as Gales, and Sir George Somers, Knights, Richard Hackluit, Clerk, Prebendary of Westminster, and Edward-Maria Wingfield, Thomas Hanharm and Ralegh Gilbert, Esqrs. William Parker, and George…

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Vermont Constitution of 1786

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Vermont 1786 By 1786, states were beginning to give up the stated preference for Christianity. Vermont here provides full freedom of religion for all faiths, while encouraging (but not requiring) the practice of religion. Chapter One, Article III. That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences and understandings, as in their opinion shall be regulated by the word of God; and that no man ought, or of…

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Vermont Constitution of 1777

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Vermont 1777 In the sections on religion (chapter 1/section 3 and chapter 2/ sections 41), the Constitution provides religious freedom to Protestants and requires that “provision shall be made” to support churches through tax dollars. It also required officeholders to be Protestant and declare belief In a God who Is a ” rewarder of the good and punisher of the wicked.” Section III. That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God, according to the dictates…

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The Barbary Treaties : Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

US Government November 4, 1796 A treaty negotiated during the Washington administration and ratified by the Senate during the presidency of John Adams, attempted to assuage Tripoli that America was not pursuing a religious war against them: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered…

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Common Sense by Thomas Paine

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Paine January 10, 1776 Tom Paine later was a prominent Deist, viewed by many church leaders as a threat and heretic because he didn’t accept the Bible as literal truth. As a result, it’s often forgotten that his seminal revolutionary rallying cry made heavy use of the Bible. MANKIND being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance; the distinctions of rich, and poor, may in a great measure be…

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Thomas Jefferson’s Draft Declaration of Independence

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson Jefferson’s draft Included a passage blaming the King of England for the slave trade. To heighten the critique, he points out that this heinous act Is perpetrated by the “Christian king.” When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the equal and independent station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s…

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The Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom

May 31, 2017 Religious Freedom Archive

Thomas Jefferson January 1, 1786 Thomas Jefferson would put the passage of this law as one of his greatest accomplishments. Although Jefferson wrote the measure, it was James Madison who ushered it through the Virginia legislature. Jefferson argued that the Lord’s way is to allow humans to find their way to Him, not through revelation or blind faith but through reason: The “holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate…

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