state in the Union to do so. Finally, thousands of people thought, the government would stop supporting particular religions and would get to its proper business - government.Who do you think the most avid supporters of this amendment were?
"None had greater occasion for rejoicing than the Baptists."
Why would religious people - evangelical Christians - support the idea of the state NOT officially supporting religion? Because they had "suffered much injustice by being taxed for the support of a State church." Baptists had been the minority Christian religion, and because of this, they had experienced the violation of their civil rights for decades.
Evangelical Christians championed the idea of getting government to stop declaring a particular religion, and start providing religious liberty for all. "Massachusetts Baptists were first and foremost in the assertion of the principles of soul liberty and universal toleration.”
Likewise, in 1800, Virginian evangelicals purposefully supported Thomas Jefferson for President, not IN SPITE of his being a non-Christian Deist, but BECAUSE he was a Deist who avidly believed in religious freedom for all faiths. Did you get that? Deist Jefferson won the presidency BECAUSE of Christians who supported his belief that the government should NOT endorse a particular religion! If this is American evangelical Christianity's heritage - rejecting the idea of the state or national government supporting particular religious groups - then why is it that evangelical Christians today are the ones MOST upset about the views of our leaders regarding religious toleration?
My answer: Because evangelicals are no longer the minority. They're now the majority. It was one thing when Congregationalists and Anglicans ruled the roost in 1800. Now they're on top. The rulers now get to make the rules...and they want it to stay that way.
Sad.
All quotes come from W.H. Eaton, A Historical Sketch of the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society and Convention, 1902)
3 comments:
Good thoughts Brian. For the last 60 years "Seperation of Church and State" has been radically changed from what it was in the 1800's. Back then it was a case of the Governement not endorsing any faith or religion over another. One denomination had no reason to fear that they would be persecuted by their government for not adhering to a particular brand of religion. Nowadays, Seperation of Church and State, is used to bully any hint of spirituality out of the public arena. Spirituality has been imprisoned into the "private" or "personal" matters and is not allowed to spill over into one's public life. Spiritual matters have been chased out of government by legislation, and upheld by the courts and is quickly being chased out of the rest of public life (i.e. entertainment, media, business, etc.) by the new social virtue of political correctness, with an increasing support of legality- ALL of this under the banner of the perversion of "Church and State" The ugly irony is that a new secular religion is being endorsed by our government, which does not tolerate anything that sniffs of spiritual faith.
-shuman
Brandon - absolutely right. If only I could cover all the bases in a blog...or even a book! Great thoughts.
Yes sir. Thank you Brian.
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