FAITH OF THE FOUNDERS: Jefferson Thanks Virginia Baptists on Freedom of Religion
(QUICK READ) — Most congressional aides, like the vast majority of Americans in general these days, are unaware of the prominent role played in the founding of this nation by the various Christian churches from before the Revolution, throughout the War for Independence and on into the writing of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States (Screenshot from YouTube).
In 1808, as the end of Jefferson’s second term in the White House neared its end, he received a congratulatory message from a group of six Baptist churches in his native Virginia. In his reply, the author of the Declaration of Independence declared that:
“In reviewing the history of the times through which we have passed, no portion of it gives greater satisfaction, on reflection, that that which presents the efforts of the friends of religious freedom and the success with which they have been crowned.
“We have solved the fair experiment , the great and interesting question, whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the Law.” – Cited by Benjamin Morris, “The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States.”
PREVIOUSLY ON FAITH OF THE FOUNDERS:
John Adams on America and God’s Providence
Benjamin Rush on Christianity and the American Republic
James Madison’s 1815 Presidential Proclamation