churches, religious orthodoxy was upheld as well. When the doctrines of a church were enforced by the state, the results could be quite severe. The punishment and execution of religious heretics continued in the New World in Massachusetts, with the expulsion of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson in the 1630s and the execution of Mary Dyer and other Quakers in the 1660s. 6
The Quakers found similar treatment at the hands of the Anglicans, the established church in Virginia, where a series of anti-Quaker laws passed in the late 1600s criminalized the refusal of Quakers to baptize their children, prohibited their assembly, and provided for their execution if they returned after expulsion. 7
The nonconformists in the colonies continued to suffer under the established churches during the Revolutionary era and beyond. In Virginia, non-Anglican preachers were required to obtain a license from the state. Baptists refused as a matter of principle, and more than forty-five Baptist ministers were jailed for this offense in Virginia between 1765 and 1778. 8 Among the Virginians who took notice of the Baptists’ suffering was James Madison. As a result, he became one of the strongest advocates of disestablishment.
In Connecticut, the union of religious and political interests between the Congregationalists and the Federalists was known as “The Standing Order.” 9 Professor Daniel L. Dreisbach of American University has written, “[A]ll citizens, Congregationalists and dissenters alike, had to pay taxes for the support of the established church, civil authorities imposed penalties for failure to attend church on Sunday or to observe public fasts and thanksgivings, and positions of influence in public life were reserved for Congregationalists. Dissenters were often denied access to meetinghouses, their clergy were not authorized to perform marriages, and dissenting itinerant preachers faced numerous restrictions and harassment by public officials.” 10
These religious dissenters, such as the Danbury Baptists, weren’t exempted from supporting Connecticut’s established church until the Toleration Act of 1784. 11
Against this backdrop, the framers contemplated the role of religion in the new republic. Although the original Constitution did not include a Bill of Rights, in 1789 Congress proposed twelve amendments to the states, ten of which were ratified in 1791, including the First Amendment with its establishment and free exercise clauses. James Madison, the primary author of the Bill of Rights, believed the intent of the religion clauses to be quite clear. He “apprehended the meaning of the words to be, that Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.” 12
But neither Madison nor Jefferson, the framers most secular in outlook, were hostile to religion. It was widely believed at the nation’s founding that faith was a necessary predicate to liberty. As Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, human beings have certain unalienable rights endowed by God. Rights are not conferred on us by a monarch or the state. Without faith, he later wrote, liberty was vulnerable: “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not violated but with his wrath?” 13
Furthermore, Madison wrote near the end of his life that belief in God was “essential to the moral order of the world.” 14 Opposition to an established church is not opposition to religion in general—though this concept has been completely lost on today’s secularists.
Madison interpreted the “free exercise” of religion, according to American Enterprise Institute scholar Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “to mean no privileges and no penalties on account of religion.” 15 The establishment clause,
The Quakers found similar treatment at the hands of the Anglicans, the established church in Virginia, where a series of anti-Quaker laws passed in the late 1600s criminalized the refusal of Quakers to baptize their children, prohibited their assembly, and provided for their execution if they returned after expulsion. 7
The nonconformists in the colonies continued to suffer under the established churches during the Revolutionary era and beyond. In Virginia, non-Anglican preachers were required to obtain a license from the state. Baptists refused as a matter of principle, and more than forty-five Baptist ministers were jailed for this offense in Virginia between 1765 and 1778. 8 Among the Virginians who took notice of the Baptists’ suffering was James Madison. As a result, he became one of the strongest advocates of disestablishment.
In Connecticut, the union of religious and political interests between the Congregationalists and the Federalists was known as “The Standing Order.” 9 Professor Daniel L. Dreisbach of American University has written, “[A]ll citizens, Congregationalists and dissenters alike, had to pay taxes for the support of the established church, civil authorities imposed penalties for failure to attend church on Sunday or to observe public fasts and thanksgivings, and positions of influence in public life were reserved for Congregationalists. Dissenters were often denied access to meetinghouses, their clergy were not authorized to perform marriages, and dissenting itinerant preachers faced numerous restrictions and harassment by public officials.” 10
These religious dissenters, such as the Danbury Baptists, weren’t exempted from supporting Connecticut’s established church until the Toleration Act of 1784. 11
Against this backdrop, the framers contemplated the role of religion in the new republic. Although the original Constitution did not include a Bill of Rights, in 1789 Congress proposed twelve amendments to the states, ten of which were ratified in 1791, including the First Amendment with its establishment and free exercise clauses. James Madison, the primary author of the Bill of Rights, believed the intent of the religion clauses to be quite clear. He “apprehended the meaning of the words to be, that Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.” 12
But neither Madison nor Jefferson, the framers most secular in outlook, were hostile to religion. It was widely believed at the nation’s founding that faith was a necessary predicate to liberty. As Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, human beings have certain unalienable rights endowed by God. Rights are not conferred on us by a monarch or the state. Without faith, he later wrote, liberty was vulnerable: “And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not violated but with his wrath?” 13
Furthermore, Madison wrote near the end of his life that belief in God was “essential to the moral order of the world.” 14 Opposition to an established church is not opposition to religion in general—though this concept has been completely lost on today’s secularists.
Madison interpreted the “free exercise” of religion, according to American Enterprise Institute scholar Vincent Phillip Muñoz, “to mean no privileges and no penalties on account of religion.” 15 The establishment clause,
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