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Analysis Of Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom, By Thomas Jefferson

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How to proceed in the matter of religious freedom? To be able to answer this question it is valuable to know some about how these freedoms were thought of by one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. “Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free.” This is the opening line of “Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1799, authored by Thomas Jefferson. In this simple, but powerful statement we see the feelings of the founders of this country regarding our inalienable rights. The Constitution defends these rights because they are not the rights granted to us by a king, or president. They are not the rights granted to us by our religious leaders. They are the rights granted to all men by “Almighty God,” regardless of who we are, what our …show more content…

This conviction of freedom was the purpose of the Virginia Statute. Thomas Jefferson taught that the assumed dominion of legislators and rulers who are themselves fallible and uninspired, whether in civil or ecclesiastical realms has been the means of creating and maintaining false religions. In his time, to serve in public office and to vote in public elections, citizens were required to be a member of the official religion. Taxes were also collected for maintaining the official religion. Jefferson explained that even forcing a person to support the church or pastor that he believed and supported would deprive him of his liberty. Being forced to do so for a belief he does not espouse would be “sinful and tyrannical.” Jefferson further explained. “That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or …show more content…

Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained in a statement in “Religion in Public Life.” He said, “… that these decisions—defensible and probably even essential as rulings on the facts before the Court—would set in motion a chain of legal and public and educational actions that would bring us to our current circumstance, in which we must reaffirm and even contend for religious liberty.” Elder Oaks states his concern that in this environment where some think it is inappropriate and even illegal to mention God and discuss the importance of religion in our history, it is impossible for our society, especially our children, to have a clear and undistorted understanding of our

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