Religious freedom in the Unites States

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Religious freedom in the Unites States

Excerpt:

From 1776-1778, Jefferson served in the Virginia House of
Delegates. In 1779, he was elected governor of Virginia
and was reelected in 1780. His autobiography discusses
the need in the years following the Declaration of
Independence to revise Virginia laws to purge them of the
remnants of colonial laws. He proposed a number of
revisions to the statutes while in the House and later,
as governor, continued his efforts to secure passage of
these reforms. The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom
proposed during Jefferson's tenure in the Assembly and
finally passed in 1786 was among his proudest
accomplishments. In his autobiography, he explains:

The bill for establishing religious freedom, the
principles of which had, to a certain degree, been
enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason
& right. It still met with opposition; but, with some
mutilations in the preamble, it was finally past; and a
singular proposition proved that it's protection of
opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble
declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of
the holy author of our religion, an amendment was
proposed, by inserting the word Jesus Christ, so that
it should read " departure from the plan of Jesus
Christ, the holy author of our religion the insertion
was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they
meant to comprehend, within the mantle of it's
protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and
Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.

From Thomas Jefferson, July 27, 1821, Autobiography
Draft Fragment, page 538

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page052.db&recNum=516

Continues here:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connectio ns/thomas-jefferson/history3.html

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti