Today is Religious Freedom Day around the world, which is meant to honor a truly pivotal moment in the history of civilization; the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.
The landmark law, which restricted the government from harming an individual’s religious rights and prevented the official establishment of a state religion, was authored by Thomas Jefferson and first introduced in 1779. It passed in 1786 under the careful patronage of James Madison while Jefferson was serving as our nation’s foreign minister in Paris. The result is a principle familiar to every American. Historian Joseph Ellis called it “Jefferson’s most enduring legacy.”
Jefferson’s idea of liberty featured freedom of one’s mind as the foundation for which all other freedoms were exercised. A person could only be truly free if they were able to think freely and express those thoughts without government interference. In the realm of religion, Jefferson believed in the allowing everyone to have their own opinion. Jefferson was very much against strict dogmatic and bureaucratic religious institutions, but that’s irrelevant to the cause he advocated for. Whether he was a practicing minister or godless atheist (and he was neither) doesn’t matter because the principle of religious freedom allows everyone to enjoy the degree of religion they choose. And directly tied with freedom of speech, religious freedom likewise allows for the freedom to stay silent on the topic just as much as it allows for boastful outwardly expression.
Today we consider those characteristics to be bedrock principles of democracy. But in the late 1700s, this had never been done before. Jefferson’s vision was groundbreaking. Since then, it has been the model used in our own federal constitution and new constitutions throughout the world. Ellis writes in American Sphinx,“
The principle that the government has no business interfering with a person’s religious beliefs or practices is the one specific Jeffersonian idea that has negotiated the passage from the late eighteenth to [now] without any significant change in character or coloration.”
Of the many contributions to our country, Jefferson placed this Virginia law as one of his most impactful. He listed it as one of the three accomplishments on his self-designed tombstone.
This year Religious Freedom Day coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. What an appropriate way to connect two important and lasting historical principles; religious freedom and civil rights. King was a Baptist minister who demonstrated the principle of religious freedom as the bedrock for freedom of all people throughout society. The freedom in our churches spread with King’s speeches and created an unstoppable movement for liberty.
It is in the universal, worldwide appeal of Religious Freedom that we should be humbled and awed by the impact of our Founding Fathers. Religious Freedom Day is certainly a cause well worth celebration.
