It’s good to revisit the freedoms we have and rediscover some seldom discussed “Fun Facts.” We should ponder our history as it goes beyond the indictment of the king and his abuses found in the Declaration.
Fact 1: Jefferson’s pursuit of happiness was a quest for moral virtue. The Smithsonian had this quote: “Jefferson believed that Jesus’ moral teachings were the most sublime and benevolent code of moral which has ever been offered to man.” This is not the Jefferson we think of, being more religious than we expect as he studied the gospels in the Bible for himself.
Fact 2: The “hedge or wall of separation between the Garden of the church and the Wilderness of the World” was written in a pamphlet published by Roger Williams in 1641. This was 160 years before Jefferson wrote his Danbury Baptist letter speaking of a “wall of separation” between the church and government in 1802. This is also years before Locke wrote about enlightenment and toleration of religion in 1689. Williams, a Christian theologian, wrote that government is responsible for laws governing the latter six commandments (do not kill, steal, lie…) while a person is accountable to God and not a government state church for the first four commandments (no other gods, not use his name in vain, no idols…). This Bible concept formed the foundation for separation of Church and State in Rhode Island (founded in 1636, where there was no state church) and provided an example for others to follow.
Fact 3: John Leland, a Baptist pastor from Massachusetts, moved to the county where Jefferson lived in 1776. In Jefferson’s words, “Leland was as courageous and resourceful a champion of the rights of conscience as America has produced,” (freedom of the press, speech, assembly and worship). His influence affected Jefferson’s Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, first drafted in 1777, as well as the adoption of Madison’s First Amendment to the Constitution in 1791. Upon adoption, Leland moved back to Massachusetts to champion freedom of conscience against the state churches of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Connecticut finally disestablished its Congregational state church and its power to tax all residents to support that church in 1818. Massachusetts took even longer, doing the same in 1833, decades after the federal government. History shows that the privilege of conscience to believe or not believe was not part of the fight with the King of England but a fight within ourselves, beyond the Declaration.
I’m thankful for the Citizens for a Better Granby who have continued to publish since 1970 and the forefathers who persisted for the freedom of conscience that we have and enjoy today. Happy 250th!
Editor’s Note: Skip Mission leads Bible Study classes in various venues in Granby.