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Essay On Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom

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When colonists establish themselves in Virginia, they in due course, established the Church of England as colonial Virginia official church. Owing to the fact that the established church and state were linked with one another, it was shortly afterward that the state-initiated laws to support and subsidize the church. With regards to obligated laws, a requirement was in order for the colonist to pay taxes with the purpose of supporting the church and the ministers, in addition, enforcing colonist to attend church services on the Sabbath. Previously to Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the state laws were particularly prejudiced towards the new customs of Christianity. The rising of different practices of Christianity such as …show more content…

Eventually, Jefferson drafted the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1777; thereafter, Jefferson proposed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom to the Virginia General Assembly in 1779. Thomas Jefferson had applied reasons and evidence to support his argument in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. To put it briefly, in Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Jefferson’s declares that as the result of God granting humanity free wills, the individuals of Virginia deserve the right to practice religious liberty without prosecution, and without intimidation. Moreover, the requirement of Virginians to support the church of not their choosing, through coercion, is a violation of an individual’s right of free will. And for those reasons, Jefferson believed that there should be a separation of religion and of the government. Overall, Thomas Jefferson understood that choice should be given to everyone, especially the choice of religion and the right of religious …show more content…

“Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness…” - Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson fought for all Americans right of free will when it came to the choice of religion; he fully believed that each and every individual was more than capable of coming to a conclusion about his or her God(s). As well as the right to proclaim and persuade about their God(s), were up to the individual. “But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." - Thomas

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