"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."Amendment I - Ratified December 15, 1791
America's greatness was not merely its land, wealth, or institutions. Its deepest strength was the recognition that conscience is accountable to God and must not be coerced by civil power.
These quotations are gathered to show that the separation of church and state was not hostility to true religion. It was a safeguard for religion, conscience, liberty, and peace.
Founders and early America
God Himself leaves the conscience free.
"Every man, conducting himself as a good citizen, and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience."George Washington - Letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia, May 1789
"...their legislature should make no law respecting establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state."Thomas Jefferson - Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, January 1, 1802
"Almighty God hath created the mind free; all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness..."Thomas Jefferson - Act for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia, 1785
"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, disciplines or exercises."Thomas Jefferson - Letter to Rev. Mr. Millar, January 23, 1808
"There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation."James Madison - Father of the Constitution
"When religion is good, it will take care of itself. When it is not able to take care of itself... so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evidence to my mind that its cause is a bad one."Benjamin Franklin - Letter to Dr. Price
"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..."Patrick Henry
Presidents and statesmen
Warnings from American leaders.
"Declare church and state forever separate and distinct; but each free within their proper spheres."Ulysses S. Grant - Seventh Annual Message to Congress, December 7, 1875
"Leave the matter of religious teaching to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contribution. Keep church and state forever separate."Ulysses S. Grant - Speech at Des Moines, Iowa, 1875
"I am tolerant of all creeds. Yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for political objects I would meet it by political opposition. In my view church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact."Millard Fillmore - 13th U.S. President
"Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere."Abraham Lincoln - Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, 1858
"Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between Church and State..."James K. Polk
"I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President... in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government."Andrew Jackson - Refusing to proclaim a national day of fasting and prayer
"The separation of Church and State in everything relating to taxation should be absolute."James A. Garfield - Letter of Acceptance of Nomination, July 12, 1880
"I hold that in this country there must be complete severance of Church and State; that public moneys shall not be used for the purpose of advancing any particular creed..."Theodore Roosevelt - Address, New York, October 12, 1915
"To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church... is an outrage against the liberty of conscience, which is one of the foundations of American life."Theodore Roosevelt - Letter on religious liberty
"I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish... where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials..."John F. Kennedy
"Let it be henceforth proclaimed to the world that man's conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God."John Tyler
"It's contrary to my beliefs to try to exalt Christianity as having some sort of preferential status in the United States. That violates the Constitution."Jimmy Carter - Christianity Today, March 2, 1998
Christian leaders
True religion does not need coercion.
"Christ wants no help from Caesar."Charles H. Spurgeon - Church in Politics by Charles Longacre
"I am ashamed of some Christians because they have so much dependence on Parliament and the law of the land... Give us a fair field and no favor, and our faith has no cause to fear."Charles H. Spurgeon
"Condemn no man for not thinking as you think. Let every one enjoy the full and free liberty of thinking for himself... If love will not compel him to come, leave him to God, the judge of all."John Wesley - Founder of the Methodist Church
"If God himself was not willing to use coercion to force man to accept certain religious views, man, uninspired and liable to error, ought not to use the means that Jehovah would not employ."William Jennings Bryan
"There is not a precept in the New Testament to compel, by civil law, any man who is not a Christian to pay any regard to the Lord's day..."Alexander Campbell - Founder of the Disciples of Christ Church
Founding documents
The American promise.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."Declaration of Independence
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."The United States Constitution - First Amendment
A necessary distinction
These quotations are not collected to attack sincere Christians in any church. The issue is not honest souls seeking God according to the light they have. The issue is religious power seeking civil force.
America in Prophecy must speak plainly about prophetic systems and church-state coercion while still recognizing that God has faithful people in many communions. Revelation 18 calls them "my people" and invites them to follow the fuller light of Christ.