The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom

Separation of Church and State is a concept that Citizens and Christians can happily accept. This idea is both taught to us by our founding fathers, and by the Bible. Laws, Statutes, and Amendments to our Constitution have been passed to secure the religious rights of every citizen of this great country. Special interests, however, have manipulated history and the Bible to gain power, votes, and influence in an effort to pass laws against the natural interests of middle to lower class Americans. It important for every citizen of this nation to understand the fundamental teachings of our founding fathers, as well as understand their doctrine's teaching of civil interaction as an agent of God.

Thomas Jefferson was the writer of the Declaration of Independence, the Third President of the United States, and the writer of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom provides language which both defines Separation of Church and State, and grants total protection of our freedom to practice religion. Without this document, we wouldn't have Freedom of Religion in the sense that we do today.

In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson argued that "the laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle [citizens]" to certain inalienable rights. The Statute of Religious Freedom begins by stating that one of these natural rights is freedom of thought. The God which Thomas Jefferson attributes these inalienable rights is the natural God that is undeniably at work in the Universe. Without acknowledgement of this God, no one could secure the natural rights of man. The first stanza of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom is as follows:

I. 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 coercion on either, as was his Almighty power to do.

Thomas Jefferson explains that God has gifted man with a free mind, and as such it is not appropriate for any person or government to curtail this freedom. By recognizing that each person is gifted a free mind from God, each person is entitled to the right of free thought.


The second stanza of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom is that actual act itself, and clearly defines what Religious Freedom means, and the necessity of the Separation of Church and State.


II. 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; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.


The act protects citizens from being forced to support, or attend any religious observance. Furthermore, it is clearly stated that no citizen shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, or to be made to suffer on account of his or her religious opinions. In short, this means that in matter of Religious opinion, such as when does life begin, or what defines marriage, one's rights cannot be limited by the doctrine of any religion. Every citizen is allowed to maintain their own opinion regarding religion, and that in no way shall their opinion diminish or affect their rights.


Finally, the last stanza of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom states that the act is describing a natural, and inalienable right of the people. It warns that to circumvent the language of the act with future legislation is to be done at the assembly's own peril, as no government or person can ever revoke this natural, and inalienable right.


III. And though we well know that this assembly elected by the people, for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the act of succeeding assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to 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 the natural right.


The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom was not some act that Thomas Jefferson took lightly. To him, this was a product based on a lifetime of work. In fact, it was so important to Thomas Jefferson that he requested that he be credited for the act on his tombstone. As such, his tombstone reads as follows:


"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia"

Thomas Jefferson's view of Religious Freedom is complete, well described, and completely correct. To violate this natural right of man is an affront of our God, the one who grants all natural rights. If God saw fit to force individuals to observe the law of the Bible, we would indeed not have the will to disobey. However, God has gifted us with the natural, and inalienable right to a free mind.