![]() |
|
Webisode 3. Segment 4 A 'Wall of Separation' A century and a half after the witchcraft crisis in Salem, two of our Founders, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which Jefferson wrote, saidofficiallythat governments have no business telling their citizens what to believe. And that you didn't have to belong to a state church to hold public office A government and its citizens' religions should be separated, Jefferson said. The power of government should only extend to acts that hurt others. He added: Jefferson, like Roger Williams before him, called it freedom of conscience. That was a daring idea in the eighteenth century. The Virginia statute's separation of church and statewhich became the law of the land when James Madison wrote the First Amendment |
|
![]() |
|
learn more at: www.pbs.org/historyofus © 2002 Picture History and Educational Broadcasting Corporation. All Rights Reserved. |
![]() |