Tag: religion

3
Posted on

Religious Liberty in Virginia: How “Dissenters” Parlayed Oppression into Freedom

Virginia’s role in helping to spearhead disestablishment and religious freedom has not received the treatment it deserves although it was, itself, a moving force behind Virginia’s entrée into the revolution. It was, in fact, Virginia which ultimately spearheaded and codified separation of church and state, after a reform movement which itself played a significant role […]

by Alex Colvin
27
Posted on

Why God is in the Declaration but not the Constitution

No country venerates its “Founding Fathers” like the United States. Academics, legislators, judges, and ordinary citizens all frequently seek to validate their opinions and policy prescriptions by identifying them with the statesmen who led America to nationhood. It is not surprising, therefore, that debates about the role of religion in the United States are infused […]

by Anthony J. Minna
3
Posted on

The Touro Synagogue: Peter Harrison, George Washington, and Religious Freedom in America

The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island is the only Jewish house of worship that survives from the American colonial period. Built at the threshold of America’s Revolutionary period, it survived the war and the damaging occupation of Newport by British troops. After the war, the congregation returned and the synagogue formed the focal point […]

by Joseph Manca
5
Posted on

The Influence of “the Black Robes”

One of the lesser known but highly influential forces that kept the doctrines of the social contract, natural rights and the rule of law first and foremost in many colonists’ consciousness was the New England Clergy. They believed there was a divine covenant between man and God that was fixed, sacred and inviolable; from that […]

by Bob Ruppert
25
Posted on

The Presbyterian Rebellion?

Though the events transpired almost a quarter of a millenium ago, the shelves down at the local Barnes & Noble bookstore routinely continue to display freshly researched, written, and published histories of the American Revolution, the founding fathers, and the genesis of the United States.[1] Yet there remains an element of the American founding era […]

by Richard Gardiner
5
Posted on

Reverend Seabury’s Pamphlet War

In the fall of 1774, just before adjourning, the First Continental Congress outlined the Articles of Association, an aggressive plan of economic resistance to Great Britain that included nonconsumption, nonimportation and nonexportation. These boycotts were to be enforced by local committees and supplant Colonial governments. Westchester, New York Reverend Samuel Seabury responded with a series […]

by Wayne Lynch