What Eminent Authorities Say
God: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Lev. 25:10. Jesus Christ: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Matt. 7:12. “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not.” John 12:47. “Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Mark 12:17. Paul: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Cor. 3:17. George Washington: “Any man conducting himself as a good citizen and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.”—Reply to the Baptists of Virginia, 1789. Thomas Jefferson: “Almighty God hath created the mind free; . . . all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, 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 in his almighty power to do.”—Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, 1785. Benjamin Franklin: “When religion is good, it will take care of itself; and when it is not able to take care of itself, and God does not see fit to take care of it, so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evidence to my mind that its cause is a bad one.”—Letter to Dr. Price. James Madison: “The settled opinion here is that religion is essentially distinct from civil government, and exempt from its cognizance; that a connection between them is injurious to both.”—Letter to Edward Everett, 1823. U. S. Grant: “Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church and the private school supported entirely by private contribution. Keep the church and state forever separate.”—Speech at Des Moines, Iowa, 1875. Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” United States Senate: “It is not the legitimate province of the legislature to determine what religion is true, or what false. Our government is a civil, and not a religious institution. Our Constitution recognizes in every person the right to choose his own religion, and to enjoy it freely without molestation.”—Sunday Mails Report, 1839. United States House of Representatives: “Despotic may regard their subjects as their property, and usurp the divine prerogative of prescribing their religious faith; but the history of the world furnishes the melancholy demonstration that the disposition of one man to coerce the religious homage of another, springs from an unchastened ambition, rather than [from] a sincere devotion to any religion.”—Sunday Mails Report, 1830. John Stuart Mill: “If all mankind, minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”—Essay on Liberty. John Wesley: “Condemn no man for not thinking as you think. Let every one enjoy the full and free liberty of thinking for himself. Let every man use his own judgment, since every man must give an account of himself to God. Abhor every approach, in any kind or degree, to the spirit of persecution. If you cannot reason nor persuade a man into the truth, never attempt to force a man into it. If love will not compel him to come, leave him to God, the judge of all.” Spurgeon: “I am ashamed of some Christians because they have so much dependence on Parliament and the law of the land.” Gladstone: “Wherever the British rule exists the same respect which we claim for the exercise of our own conscientious convictions is yielded to the professors of every other faith on the surface of the globe.”—Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria, p. 363. Queen Victoria: “Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects.”—Proclamation, 1858.