Proof The Bible Is True

“Fascinating historical look back at what Thomas Jefferson meant by his “separation of church and state” remark in a letter he wrote and how that phrase is being used today in a way that’s the exact opposite of what Jefferson intended.”  Admin

On Jan. 1, 1802, the people of Cheshire, Massachusetts, sent a giant block of cheese to President Thomas Jefferson, being presented by the famous Baptist preacher, John Leland.

John Leland was then invited to preach to the president and Congress in the U.S. Capitol. The subject of his talk was “separation of church and state.”

Baptists had been particularly persecuted in colonial Virginia, as Francis L. Hawks wrote in Ecclesiastical History (1836): “No dissenters in Virginia experienced for a time harsher treatment than the Baptists. They were beaten and imprisoned. … Cruelty taxed ingenuity to devise new modes of punishment and annoyance.”

So many Baptist ministers were harassed and their church services disrupted that James Madison introduced legislation in Virginia’s Legislature on Oct. 31, 1785, titled “A Bill for Punishing Disturbers of Religious Worship,” which passed in 1789.

Colonial Virginia had an “establishment” of the Church of England, or “Anglican Church” from 1606 to 1786. Establishment meant mandatory membership, mandatory taxes to support it and no one could hold public office unless they were a member.

Over time, lax enforcement allowed “dissenting” religious groups to enter Virginia, the first being Presbyterians and Quakers, followed by German Lutherans, Mennonites and Moravian Brethren, then finally Baptists.

John Leland, who considered running for Congress, wanted an amendment to the new United States Constitution that would protect religious liberty.

Read More  The real meaning of ‘separation of church and state’.