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Buckley, Thomas

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Loyola Marymount University

Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law SchoolDigital Commons at Loyola MarymountUniversity and Loyola Law SchoolFaculty Pub Night William H. Hannon LibraryFall 12-2-2014Establishing Religious Freedom: Jefferson's Statutein VirginiaThomas BuckleyLoyola Marymount University, thomas.buckley@lmu.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/facultypubnightPart of the Religion Commons, and the United States History CommonsThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the William H. Hannon Library at Digital Commons @ Loyola Marymount University andLoyola Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Pub Night by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Loyola MarymountUniversity and Loyola Law School. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@lmu.edu.Recommended CitationBuckley, Thomas, "Establishing Religious Freedom: Jefferson's Statute in Virginia" (2014). Faculty Pub Night. 18.http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/facultypubnight/18Faculty Pub Night – Fall 2014 Date: December 2, 2014 Speaker: Thomas Buckley    About the Author’s Work The significance of the Virginia Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom goes far beyond the borders of the Old Dominion. Its influence ultimately extended to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the separation of church and state. In his latest book, Thomas Buckley tells the story of the statute, beginning with its background in the struggles of the colonial dissenters against an oppressive Church of England. When the Revolution forced the issue of religious liberty, Thomas Jefferson drafted his statute and James Madison guided its passage through the state legislature. Displacing an established church by instituting religious freedom, the Virginia statute provided the most substantial guarantees of religious liberty of any state in the new nation. The statute's implementation, however, proved to be problematic. Faced with a mandate for strict separation of church and state--and in an atmosphere of sweeping evangelical Christianity--Virginians clashed over numerous issues, including the legal ownership of church property, the incorporation of churches and religious groups, Sabbath observance, protection for religious groups, Bible reading in school, and divorce laws. Such debates pitted churches against one another and engaged Virginia’s legal system for a century and a half. Fascinating history in itself, the effort to implement Jefferson’s statute has even broader significance in its anticipation of the conflict that would occupy the whole country after the Supreme Court nationalized the religion clause of the First Amendment in the 1940s. 

Establishing Religious Freedom: Jefferson\u27s Statute in Virginia

https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&amp;context=facultypubnight

Establishing Religious Freedom: Jefferson\u27s Statute in Virginia

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