On January 16, 1786, the Virginia legislature passed Thomas Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom which, contrary to right-wing opinion, is a statement strongly in support of freedom from religion, in addition to freedom of religion. It states in part (emphases mine):
Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was his Almighty power to do . . .
-snip-
Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief;
-snip-
we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, such as would be an infringement of natural right.
By an act of Congress, presidents are required to annually recognize by proclamation the anniversary of this day to be Religious Freedom Day, as has President Biden this year. However, the right wing continues to attempt to twist the meaning of religious freedom, such as observed by the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer in a preface to work by Frederick Clarkson of Political Research Associates:
This is the religious liberty being propagated by the Religious Right. They argue that they have no religious freedom unless their restrictive moral code is written into the Constitution. They argue that they have no religious liberty unless those whose religious ceremonies violate the sanctity of their precious theology are thrown in jail. What they want to call religious freedom is in fact the kind of oppressive religious tyranny that my ancestors left their homeland to escape.
To counteract this twisted slant, each year Frederick Clarkson encourages a team of community writers at Daily Kos to write diaries over the course of a week, to provide personal views of religious freedom and to discuss religious freedom from a more leftward perspective. This year, this previous week has been our Religious Freedom Week. Many thanks to officebss, who has been indispensable to the organization of the team this year. I am posting this diary to review this week and, hopefully, let more folks know what we’ve been up to. I am providing snippets, but hope you’ll use the links to read the diaries in full; there’s a lot of great writing left out here!
