During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson wrote the only book he ever published: Notes on the State of Virginia (written in 1781, it was expanded and then published in 1785). The chapter on “Religion” remains as relevant today as in those days of risky and radical change. With an emphasis on religious tolerance, reason, free inquiry and common sense, this freethinking founder hands us practical wisdom for our mental pockets today. His principles for inclusion of diverse beliefs in America can help us maintain and sustain (patch and protect) the essential wall of separation between religion and government, the wall that is now crumbling before our eyes.
In his chapter on “Religion,” Jefferson wrote: “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” These words are as rational and responsible now as they were over 200 years ago. We would do well to contemplate his wise observations in the religious climate crisis we face today.
He begins by offering a brief historical background of religion in America. Writing of early European settlers in the New World (Pilgrims and Puritans in the North, Anglicans in the South) who were seeking religious freedom while being intolerant of other beliefs, Jefferson notes that freedom was reserved only for what he calls “the reigning sect” — the dominant faith.
Continuing, he offers a description of the dangers of theocracy, a politically privileged and powerful church with dangerous doctrines of dominance. To counter this authoritarian tyranny, Jefferson wryly observes that during the colonial era “other opinions began to creep in.” Heretical beliefs challenged the piously powerful, though the fearfully faithful should have calmed down and considered that “Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion.”
In his brief chapter on “Religion,” Jefferson is reaching in his pocket for the blueprint for walling off dominant religion. When religious belief is harmful, when someone’s faith causes injury (physical, mental or societal), the wall of conscience must be raised; a defense of the defenseless must be decisively mounted — a call to stand up and speak out must be heard.
In a real sense we are the wall — a living wall. Our secular Constitution constitutes us; its secure framework holds the wall together. We have to stand firm as that breathing barrier, whether we believe in one god, “twenty gods or no gods.” The wall consists of flesh and blood, bone and brain. We are tasked with containing the tide of religious supremacy — of any reigning sect — by maintaining a line in the secular sand where harmful religion cannot cross.
Jefferson’s hallmark legislation on religious liberty — the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom — was, in his words, “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and [Muslim], the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination” (“Autobiography Draft Fragment,” July 27, 1821). The law throws its protective cloak around each citizen, believer or nonbeliever. And maybe a cloak is a better image than a wall?
I suggest we pick Jefferson’s pocket, unfold the old yellowed and dusty note in there, taking to heart and hand these words: “The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit.” We cannot submit, we cannot surrender, to any bullying bullhorns of belief seeking to intimidate or dominate.
Jefferson ever challenges our courage: “Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.” Freethinking citizens have to be vigilant and vitalized. Our weapons are reason and free inquiry. Religious supremacy is a great error, a great injury, and it must be stopped.
Chris Highland is a teacher and writer in Asheville, N.C. Formerly a Protestant minister and interfaith chaplain, he now writes and teaches from a humanist perspective. His website is Friendly Freethinker (www.chighland.com).