SPEECH ON SECULAR EDUCATION

John Stuart Mill

(Not delivered : written in 1849)

SIR, the commencement at Manchester of a movement for a national education not under the control or management of either established or non-established clergy has already, it would seem, made no inconsiderable impression on the public, or else The Times has made a false move and miscalculated the signs of the coming public opinion ; for already at the very beginning of the agitation that journal has discovered, what it did not find out in the case of the Corn Law League until the fourth or fifth year of its existence, that the thing is not merely a good thing, but what is so much better in the estimation of The Times, a thing destined to succeed. The promoters doubtless thought no less, but they probably did not expect so early a recognition of their prospects. How much then it is to be lamented that an enterprise of so much promise should have been inaugurated by an act of truckling and compromise ; that for the sake of conciliating people who are not to be conciliated and whom it ought not to have been an object to conciliate, the Association should have let itself be persuaded by Mr. Cobden, aided by some dissenting ministers, to sacrifice its distinctive flag, and instead of calling itself an Association for secular education should have sheltered its timidity under the ambiguous designation of unsectarian.

If this is only a change in words and means nothing it deserves no better name than that of deception ; if it does mean anything, if by unsectarian is to be understood something different from secular education, the broad principle of religious freedom which was to be the foundation of this great educational movement is abandoned.

In the debates of the Conference there was a good deal of misunderstanding, some of it I fear rather wilful on the part of Mr. Cobden and his supporters respecting the import of the word secular. There is no uncertainty about it. There is not a better defined word in the English language. Secular is whatever has reference to this life. Secular instruction is instruction respecting the concerns of this life. Secular subjects therefore are all subjects except religion. All the arts and sciences are secular knowledge. To say that secular means irreligious implies that all the arts and sciences are irreligious, and is very like saying that all professions except that of the law are illegal. There is a difference between irreligious and not religious, however it may suit the purposes of many persons to confound it. Now on the principles of religious freedom which we were led to believe that it was the purpose of this Association to accept, instruction on subjects not religious is as much the right of those who will not accept religious instruction as of those who will. To know the laws of the physical world, the properties of their own bodies and minds, the past history of their species, is as much a benefit to the Jew, the Mussulman, the Deist, the Atheist, as to the orthodox churchman ; and it is as iniquitous to withhold it from them. Education provided by the public must be education for all, and to be education for all it must be purely secular education.

When, then, the Association refuses to say that their education is secular but are willing to say that it shall he unsectarian, what do they mean ? Doubtless that it is still to be exclusive, though in a minor degree. That religion is to be taught, but not sectarian religion. That they are not to have Church of England teaching, or Catholic teaching, or Baptist, or Methodist, or Unitarian teaching, but I suppose Christian teaching ; that is, whatever common elements of Christianity are supposed to be found in all these sects alike. How far this is likely to conciliate the various classes of sectarians the Association will probably hear loudly enough from the sectarians themselves. I am much mistaken if they will be at all thankful for any religious teaching which expresses no opinion on a subject on which Christians differ in opinion, or if the substratum of universal Christianity which it is proposed to teach will appear to them at all different from Deism. But this is their concern. I take higher ground. I maintain that if you could carry all the sects with you by your compromise you would have effected nothing but a compact among the more powerful bodies to cease fighting among themselves and join in trampling on the weaker. You would have contrived a national education not for all, but for believers in the New Testament. The Jew and the unbeliever would be excluded from it though they would not the less be required to pay for it. I do not hear that their money is to be refused, that they are to be exempted from the school rate. Religious exclusion and inequality are as odious when practised towards minorities as majorities. I thought the principle of the Association had been that of justice, but I find it is that of being unjust to those alone who are not numerous enough to resist.

I cannot help remarking how much less confidence professed Christians appear to have in the truth and power of their principles than infidels generally have in theirs. Disbelievers in Christianity almost always hail the advance of public intelligence as favourable to them ; the more informed and exercised a mind is, the more likely they account it to adopt their opinions : but I cannot find a trace of similar confidence in most of the professedly religious. If they hold their belief with the same full assurance as the others their disbelief, surely infidels and the children of infidels are those to whom, even more than to any others, they would be eager to give all instruction which could render their minds more capable of pursuing and recognizing truth. A person is without religious belief, or in other words is in their estimation in a state of the most pitiable, the most calamitous ignorance by which any one can possibly be afflicted, and for this reason they refuse him instruction, they refuse him knowledge and the cultivation and discipline of the intellect, as if they thought that mental cultivation could not possibly be favourable to Christianity, unless the mind is first strongly prepossessed on its behalf. Such sentiments as these are not complimentary to Christianity nor to the sincerity of their belief in it. Its greatest enemy could say nothing worse of it than that either ignorance or early prejudice is the soil it must have to flourish in, and that to instruct unbelievers, to make them rational and thinking beings, is but to confirm them in unbelief. I hoped that the founders of the Lancaster Association had been persons who thought that mental cultivation opens the mind to all truth, whether expressly taught or not. Let us hope that this conviction is still theirs and will guide and animate their labours ; but they have missed through pusillanimity a splendid opportunity for inscribing it on their banner and proclaiming it in the face of the world.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY: PART ONE

A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT OR PART OF A BALANCING ACT IN DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION.

JEAN ELY

The debate over same-sex marriage has promoted a discourse around religious liberty.

This issue has taken centre stage for those who object on the basis of religious belief or matters of conscience. The debate about laws which are in conflict with the religious belief of individuals or churches has to date centred around legislative exemptions .

Caroline Evans,a former Dean of the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne considers that, although there may be sometimes good reasons for giving exemptions on religious grounds, under non-discrimination law, the ‘current balance between protecting religious institutions but not religious individuals provides evidence that it is a sensible principle to continue with respect to same sex marriage.’ [1]

Evans mentions segregationist churches in the US who discriminate on the basis of race or pacifist Quakers withholding tax for defence spending. She ignores two thousand years of persecution, and bloodshed (ongoing in some parts of the world) and the French, American – and Australian Englightenment solution. This was a separation of religion from the State, a Bill of Rights provision –Section 116 – of the Australian Constitution. This provision has not been mentioned in any current commentaries on the same sex marriage debate.

In this paper, I suggest that recent developments in discrimination law, both here and internationally, are cold comfort for both institutions and individuals who have strong religious beliefs and are prepared to say ‘Here I stand, I can do no other’ on the same-sex marriage issue.

Perhaps religious men and women of strong conscience should look again at Section 116 of the Australian Constitution which says:

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

This section, which until 1981 some citizens considered a ‘ religious liberty’ or ‘Bill of Rights’ type clause was based on the First amendment and Article 6.3 of the Constitution of the United States [2] Our Founding Fathers understood that it prohibited both State interference in religion on the one hand and State Aid to both religion and religious institutions in 1898. [3]

In relation to Section 116 however, Australian churches and religious men and women of Christian conscience, will need to look back, in shame, to the DOGS case of 1981.[4] In order to take the Queen’s shilling for their religious schools, the defendants in this case— churchmen and women —argued for 26 days in the High Court of Australia that their schools were not religious institutions; were no more religious than public schools; and the words’ any religion’ meant ‘a particular State religion’. With the exception of Justice Lionel Murphy, the six judges of the High Court, agreed with them.The majority judges  ignored the intention of the Founding Fathers of 1898, namely the separation of religion from the State. They and turned the religious liberty clause of the Australian Constitution on its head.[5]

How? According to the majority judgements, the words’ any religion’ really means ‘a State religion’or ‘a State church’. However, if this meaning is given to “any religion’ and transferred to the remaining clauses, Section 116 reads:

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing a State religion or church , or for imposing any religious observance [of a State religion or church] , or for prohibiting the free exercise of a State religion or church, and no religious test [of a State religion or church]  shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

On this interpretation Section 116 is no longer a prohibition on the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth can make any law it wishes concerning religion so long as it does not make it for a State religion or church. In 1981 the plaintiffs believed that a Bill of Rights protection, a clause that they believed was a protective shield —had been turned into a sword.[6]

Thirty six years later, Australian religious schools for the wealthy are overflowing with taxpayer largesse while impoverished public schools go begging. And Australian citizens are now cognizant of sex abuse scandals perpetuated in some taxpayer funded religious schools.  Australian churches and many of their employees have long since lost the moral, let alone the liberty of conscience initiative in Australian society.

However, some citizens in Australia may still believe that liberty of and from religion is a basic human right that should not be downgraded into a balancing act in discrimination legislation, administered by tribunals using an inquisitorial method. Although religious groups are currently lobbying for religious exemptions in any same sex marriage legislation, and these may initially have a chilling effect, they are no substitution for what was intended as a strong Bill of Rights section of the Constitution – if it had not been read down and out by black letter law judges.

Those who believe in separation of religion from the State, might like to consider developments in the High Court itself and academic commentaries on the DOGS case since 1981. Scholars who accept the High Court decision in the DOGS case, are a minority. Some, including Caroline Evans, are prepared to question it, while others strongly advocate a wall of separation between religion and state as the only solution to liberty of and from religion. 

But first,

Are Exemptions from Discrimination Legislation a Guarantee of Religious Liberty?

The short answer is “No” with the question, “ If religious organisations are paid by the State to run public services like education, health, and employment agencies : Why should they be exempt ?” Why should parents and children with the wrong beliefs or sexual orientation be turned away from schools and hospitals that are 80-90% publicly funded ? These are basic issues of accountability and democratic procedure.

Should he who pays the piper, call the tune?

Caroline Evans claims that under current discrimination legislation individuals like cake makers may not be protected but religious institutions are. But are they?

Commentators[7] discuss the issue as a balancing act between liberty and equality, both considered fundamental rights deserving of legislative protection in a democratic society.

But what happens when they are in conflict?

In the last decade, there has been a landmark case - the Cobaw case,[8] which tested the extent to which it is lawful for religious groups to discriminate through carve-outs or exemptions to anti-discrimination legislation. Cobaw Community Health Services successfully sued Christian Youth Camps (‘CYC’) for unlawful discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. CYC ran Phillip Island Adventure Resort, a commercial operation established by the Christian Brethren Trust . The Christian Brethren are opposed to homosexual activity as being against biblical teaching. Cobaw wished to hire a camp facility from the appellants for the use of same sex attracted young people. CYC ( by its camp manager) refused.

The majority judges, Maxwell P and Neave JA (Redlich JA dissenting)  held that CYC was unable to bring its conduct within the religious exemptions of the 1995 Equal Opportunity Act of Victoria. [9] The majority judges found that CYC was not a ‘body established for religious purposes’ and therefore could not avail itself of the exemption under S 75 of the EOA 1995. CYC existed for the fundamentally commercial purpose of making campsite accommodation available to the public, and the requirement that the camp be conducted in accordance with Christian beliefs and principles did not transform this secular purpose into a religious one. The Court noted that although the provision of services may have a religious motivation, unless the activity itself is intrinsically religious, ‘it is difficult to see ow questions of doctrinal conformity or offence to religious sensitivities can meaningfully arise.’ [10]

Given the number of religious organisations providing various social services on a commercial basis, this approach may have far-reaching consequences. For example, in 2017 the Catholic Church in Victoria is involved in 492 schools, at least 11 hospitals and numerous aged care facilities and  child welfare institutions

Maxwell P and Neave JA (Redlich JA dissenting) held that corporations could not hold beliefs, and therefore could not rely on the exemption under s 77 of the EOA 1995.[11] Even if this was not the case, the refusal was also not necessary to comply with genuine religious beliefs or principles.

In law, churches may be voluntary organisations. But many educational, health and other enterprises run by religious groups are administered by corporations. If Maxwell P. is correct, and corporations cannot hold beliefs, where does this lead for religious exemptions for discrimination legislation?

It should be noted that all judges focused on the concept of dignity, identity, status and self-worth when discussing the young people discriminated against. This approach mirrors the approach taken in Canada and South Africa. [12] In this case, theirs was the more ‘fundamental’ right.  Religious liberty, freedom of and from religion, freedom of conscience has been downgraded in a ‘balancing’ act .

Above all, it should be noted that in the Cobaw case all three judges, servants of the State were free to determine what under Section 75(2) constituted the ‘doctrine’ and ‘ injury to the religious sensitivities’  of the Christian Brethren when they decided that the exemption under Section 75(2) of the Equal Opportunity Act did not apply.  

Since the Cobaw case, there have been changes to the religious exemptions in the EOA 1995.[13] These adopted the broader definition of ‘religious body’ found in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) s 38 (5) (b) The definition now reads

‘an entity that establishes, or directs, controls or administers, an educational or other charitable entity that is intended to be, and is, conducted in accordance with religious doctrines, beliefs or principles’ [14]

Religious ‘entities’ may take some comfort from this ‘broader’ definition, but individuals appear to have no protection. And the actual definition of ‘religious doctrines, beliefs or principles’ which for many citizens are private matters of conscience central to their dignity, identity, status and self-worth will be defined ‘objectively’ rather than ‘subjectively’ by civil magistrates.

So much for separation of religion from the State. So much for the late eighteenth century enlightenment solution hammered out after centuries of religious wars, bloodshed and persecution.

Yet the concept of separation of religion and the State, whatever the High Court may have said in 1981, was firmly embedded in the Australian Constitution by the two men, Henry Bournes Higgins and Andrew Inglis Clark who ensured its inclusion in the first place.

It is a very powerful idea, and ideas have a habit of resurrecting themselves in every generation. If properly interpreted the idea of separation of religion from the State could - and  should - solve the problems of both parties in the Gay marriage debate.

A lot of water has gone under Australian social and ideological bridges since the DOGS case in 1981 when this powerful idea was turned on its head.

This is the subject of the next Press Release.

ACCESS MINISTRIES, CHRISTIANS AND THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

ACCESS Ministries are concerned that the Andrews Government has sidelined Special Religious Instruction to an opt-in program held outside the hours of secular instruction in Victorian Public Schools.

The Government is here fulfilling its obligation to keep separate matters of secular instruction which are for the common good and matters of belief which are matters for private conscience. It is a still a matter of concern that hundreds of millions of the State’s scarce resources are diverted into private, religious schools themselves.

As committed Christians, members of ACCESS Ministries might take heart from the fact that the Andrews Government is saving them from ‘yielding to temptation’. What temptation?  The temptation of playing God and seeking power over the minds of children while they themselves worship the God of Mammon - in the form of taxpayer subsidies.

However, it should be noted that many ACCESS Ministry instructors are genuine, deeply committed volunteers.  And DOGS understand that many in the so-called Judeo-Christian tradition dream of producing a Godly nation. But, as Christ himself understood only too well -  human nature is - human. And followers of Christ have discovered to their grief that religious establishments and theocracies have a Pharisaic, bloody, and deeply oppressive history.

ACCESS Ministries might also take note of their Christian predecessors in both Australia and America who fought for and enshrined the principle of separation of religion and the State in the Constitutions of both countries.

DOGS refer them to Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists at http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html and James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance at http://presspubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html

These key documents in the history of religion and the State are reproduced below. They are referred to again and again in American Supreme Court findings on the First Amendment. The American experience influenced Andrew Inglis Clark and  Henry Bournes Higgins when they battled to insert Section 116 into the Australian Constitution. Only Justice Lionel Murphy, himself a committed humanist, understood this fundamental history in the battle for separation of religion and the state and freedom of conscience in the 1981 DOGS case.

They are reproduced below :

KEY AMERICAN STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE AT

Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists at http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html and James Madison’s Memorial and Remonstrance at http://presspubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html

Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists
The Final Letter, as Sent

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.

Amendment I (Religion)

Document 43

James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments

20 June 1785Papers 8:298--304

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia A Memorial and Remonstrance

We the subscribers, citizens of the said Commonwealth, having taken into serious consideration, a Bill printed by order of the last Session of General Assembly, entitled "A Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion," and conceiving that the same if finally armed with the sanctions of a law, will be a dangerous abuse of power, are bound as faithful members of a free State to remonstrate against it, and to declare the reasons by which we are determined. We remonstrate against the said Bill,

1. Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "that Religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence." [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governour of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate Association, must always do it with a reservation of his duty to the General Authority; much more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no mans right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance. True it is, that no other rule exists, by which any question which may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but the will of the majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority.

2. Because if Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body. The latter are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their jurisdiction is both derivative and limited: it is limited with regard to the co-ordinate departments, more necessarily is it limited with regard to the constituents. The preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

3. Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?

4. Because the Bill violates that equality which ought to be the basis of every law, and which is more indispensible, in proportion as the validity or expediency of any law is more liable to be impeached. If "all men are by nature equally free and independent," [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 1] all men are to be considered as entering into Society on equal conditions; as relinquishing no more, and therefore retaining no less, one than another, of their natural rights. Above all are they to be considered as retaining an "equal title to the free exercise of Religion according to the dictates of Conscience." [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered. As the Bill violates equality by subjecting some to peculiar burdens, so it violates the same principle, by granting to others peculiar exemptions. Are the Quakers and Menonists the only sects who think a compulsive support of their Religions unnecessary and unwarrantable? Can their piety alone be entrusted with the care of public worship? Ought their Religions to be endowed above all others with extraordinary privileges by which proselytes may be enticed from all others? We think too favorably of the justice and good sense of these denominations to believe that they either covet pre-eminences over their fellow citizens or that they will be seduced by them from the common opposition to the measure.

5. Because the Bill implies either that the Civil Magistrate is a competent Judge of Religious Truth; or that he may employ Religion as an engine of Civil policy. The first is an arrogant pretension falsified by the contradictory opinions of Rulers in all ages, and throughout the world: the second an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.

6. Because the establishment proposed by the Bill is not requisite for the support of the Christian Religion. To say that it is, is a contradiction to the Christian Religion itself, for every page of it disavows a dependence on the powers of this world: it is a contradiction to fact; for it is known that this Religion both existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them, and not only during the period of miraculous aid, but long after it had been left to its own evidence and the ordinary care of Providence. Nay, it is a contradiction in terms; for a Religion not invented by human policy, must have pre-existed and been supported, before it was established by human policy. It is moreover to weaken in those who profess this Religion a pious confidence in its innate excellence and the patronage of its Author; and to foster in those who still reject it, a suspicion that its friends are too conscious of its fallacies to trust it to its own merits.

7. Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. Enquire of the Teachers of Christianity for the ages in which it appeared in its greatest lustre; those of every sect, point to the ages prior to its incorporation with Civil policy. Propose a restoration of this primitive State in which its Teachers depended on the voluntary rewards of their flocks, many of them predict its downfall. On which Side ought their testimony to have greatest weight, when for or when against their interest?

8. Because the establishment in question is not necessary for the support of Civil Government. If it be urged as necessary for the support of Civil Government only as it is a means of supporting Religion, and it be not necessary for the latter purpose, it cannot be necessary for the former. If Religion be not within the cognizance of Civil Government how can its legal establishment be necessary to Civil Government? What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not. Such a Government will be best supported by protecting every Citizen in the enjoyment of his Religion with the same equal hand which protects his person and his property; by neither invading the equal rights of any Sect, nor suffering any Sect to invade those of another.

9. Because the proposed establishment is a departure from that generous policy, which, offering an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion, promised a lustre to our country, and an accession to the number of its citizens. What a melancholy mark is the Bill of sudden degeneracy? Instead of holding forth an Asylum to the persecuted, it is itself a signal of persecution. It degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative authority. Distant as it may be in its present form from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree. The one is the first step, the other the last in the career of intolerance. The magnanimous sufferer under this cruel scourge in foreign Regions, must view the Bill as a Beacon on our Coast, warning him to seek some other haven, where liberty and philanthrophy in their due extent, may offer a more certain repose from his Troubles.

10. Because it will have a like tendency to banish our Citizens. The allurements presented by other situations are every day thinning their number. To superadd a fresh motive to emigration by revoking the liberty which they now enjoy, would be the same species of folly which has dishonoured and depopulated flourishing kingdoms.

11. Because it will destroy that moderation and harmony which the forbearance of our laws to intermeddle with Religion has produced among its several sects. Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease. The American Theatre has exhibited proofs that equal and compleat liberty, if it does not wholly eradicate it, sufficiently destroys its malignant influence on the health and prosperity of the State. If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly. At least let warning be taken at the first fruits of the threatened innovation. The very appearance of the Bill has transformed "that Christian forbearance, love and charity," [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] which of late mutually prevailed, into animosities and jealousies, which may not soon be appeased. What mischiefs may not be dreaded, should this enemy to the public quiet be armed with the force of a law?

12. Because the policy of the Bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity. The first wish of those who enjoy this precious gift ought to be that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind. Compare the number of those who have as yet received it with the number still remaining under the dominion of false Religions; and how small is the former! Does the policy of the Bill tend to lessen the disproportion? No; it at once discourages those who are strangers to the light of revelation from coming into the Region of it; and countenances by example the nations who continue in darkness, in shutting out those who might convey it to them. Instead of Levelling as far as possible, every obstacle to the victorious progress of Truth, the Bill with an ignoble and unchristian timidity would circumscribe it with a wall of defence against the encroachments of error.

13. Because attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to so great a proportion of Citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general, and to slacken the bands of Society. If it be difficult to execute any law which is not generally deemed necessary or salutary, what must be the case, where it is deemed invalid and dangerous? And what may be the effect of so striking an example of impotency in the Government, on its general authority?

14. Because a measure of such singular magnitude and delicacy ought not to be imposed, without the clearest evidence that it is called for by a majority of citizens, and no satisfactory method is yet proposed by which the voice of the majority in this case may be determined, or its influence secured. "The people of the respective counties are indeed requested to signify their opinion respecting the adoption of the Bill to the next Session of Assembly." But the representation must be made equal, before the voice either of the Representatives or of the Counties will be that of the people. Our hope is that neither of the former will, after due consideration, espouse the dangerous principle of the Bill. Should the event disappoint us, it will still leave us in full confidence, that a fair appeal to the latter will reverse the sentence against our liberties.

15. Because finally, "the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his Religion according to the dictates of conscience" is held by the same tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be less dear to us; if we consult the "Declaration of those rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis and foundation of Government," it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather studied emphasis. Either then, we must say, that the Will of the Legislature is the only measure of their authority; and that in the plenitude of this authority, they may sweep away all our fundamental rights; or, that they are bound to leave this particular right untouched and sacred: Either we must say, that they may controul the freedom of the press, may abolish the Trial by Jury, may swallow up the Executive and Judiciary Powers of the State; nay that they may despoil us of our very right of suffrage, and erect themselves into an independent and hereditary Assembly or, we must say, that they have no authority to enact into law the Bill under consideration. We the Subscribers say, that the General Assembly of this Commonwealth have no such authority: And that no effort may be omitted on our part against so dangerous an usurpation, we oppose to it, this remonstrance; earnestly praying, as we are in duty bound, that the Supreme Lawgiver of the Universe, by illuminating those to whom it is addressed, may on the one hand, turn their Councils from every act which would affront his holy prerogative, or violate the trust committed to them: and on the other, guide them into every measure which may be worthy of his blessing, may redound to their own praise, and may establish more firmly the liberties, the prosperity and the happiness of the Commonwealth.

The Founders' Constitution
Volume 5, Amendment I (Religion), Document 43
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html
The University of Chicago Press

The Papers of James Madison. Edited by William T. Hutchinson et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1962--77 (vols. 1--10); Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977--(vols. 11--).

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