Last Tuesday was National Religious Freedom Day. There was a presidential statement as there has been annually since 1993, but officially it’s not really different from National French Fries Day, just with more history.
January 16th, 1786 was the day that the Virginia General Assembly passed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, championed by James Madison and inspiration for the First Amendment. That is worth celebrating. Jefferson had introduced the Statute in the Assembly in 1777 and 1779 but in large part due to the strength of the Anglican Church it did not pass.
In 1786, Madison reintroduced Jefferson’s bill to preclude a proposed tax that would have supported churches, and make it official that “no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, … nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion…”
Jefferson’s bill did not mince words: “Religion tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it.”
An amendment was offered to insert the name Jesus Christ into the bill and was rejected. Jefferson later wrote that “the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan [Muslim], the Hindoo [Hindu], and Infidel of every denomination.” Thomas Jefferson did not believe that religious freedom applied only to Christians. Remember that next time you read that we were founded as a Christian nation.
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom became a bellwether for the principles of religious freedom in other states and other countries. Clearly it influenced Madison as he began the First Amendment with “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
You’ve heard about the bakeries that refuse to bake for some patrons and adoption agencies that won’t allow LGBTQ people to adopt. They justify that by claiming religious freedom. The meaning of religious freedom is being twisted far from what the Founders believed. That’s how you co-opt an idea you disagree with. And it’s not a big leap to include atheists among those who can be discriminated against.
At the Secular Coalition for America we believe religious freedom means freedom of — and freedom from — religion, regardless of which religious tradition happens to make up the majority of the nation or the government. As Jefferson said, religious freedom also applies to Infidels.
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We picked the bill we will be lobbying for on Lobby Day, March 5th. It will crack down on militias in this country. We know that a significant number of militia members are Christian nationalists, and Christian nationalists want to make this a Christian nation. They don’t believe in the separation of church and state and they are preparing to do something about it. I'm working on the bill already. You can read more about the bill here and you can register for lobby day here. You don't need to know anything about lobbying or militias! We take care of that.
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