Bill of Rights approved September 25, 1789

American Minute with Bill Federer

“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Thus began the first of the Ten Amendments, or Bill of Rights, which were approved SEPTEMBER 25, 1789.

“The Father of the Bill of Rights” was George Mason of Virginia.

When George Washington was chosen to be the Commander of the Continental Army, George Mason was drafted by citizens of Virginia to fill Washington’s place in the Continental Congress.

George Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, from which Jefferson drew from to write the Declaration of Independence.

George Mason was one of 55 founders who wrote the U.S. Constitution, but was one of the few who refused to sign it because it did not end the slave trade and did not put enough limits on the Federal Government’s power.

On August 22, 1787, George Mason stated:

“Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of heaven upon a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this.

By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins, by national calamities.”

George Mason stated before the General Court of Virginia:

“The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superseded by no power on earth.”

This phrase of Mason’s was mirrored in the Declaration of Independence as

“the laws of nature and nature’s God.”

George Mason joined with Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams in an effort to prevent the Constitution from being ratified.

They feared that too much power concentrated into the hands of the Federal Government would result in the same trampling of individual rights that King George III perpetrated.

George Mason’s opposition to the Constitution cost him his friendship with George Washington.

When the Constitution was ratified, George Mason led the charge in insisting that in the first session of Congress there should be ten limitations or “Amendments” put in place which would restrict the power of the new Federal Government.

George Mason suggested the wording of the First Amendment be:

“All men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that no particular sect or society of Christians ought to be favored or established by law in preference to others.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

163 – June 12 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

Madison, James

Toleration v Liberty

 

On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted but not until its author, George Mason, and the committee had consented, at the urging of young James Madison, to an amendment of the 16th article. The article originally stated:

“That religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and convictions, and not by force or violence; and, therefore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise or religion, according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate, unless, under the color of religion, any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or the safety of society; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity for each other.”

 

The difference between this article and the First Amendment, is between the free exercise of religion and toleration. Where did the young James Madison learn this principle? He learned from the Baptists and their persecution in Orange and Culpeper Counties, Virginia. Also this Declaration of Rights became the pattern of many other colonial declarations. Article 16 was the basis of the establishment and free exercise clauses of our federal Constitution.

May we never forget and may we pass on to our posterity that a vital part of our Baptist heritage involves religious liberty in America.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I. (Thompson and Cummins) p. 242.

The post 163 – June 12 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST appeared first on The Trumpet Online.

 

163 — June 12 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

 James Madison

 

Toleration v Liberty

 

On June 12, 1776, the Virginia Declaration of Rights was adopted but not until its author, George Mason, and the committee had consented, at the urging of young James Madison, to an amendment of the 16^th article. The article originally stated:

 

“That religion, or the duty we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only

 

by reason and convictions, and not by force or violence; and, therefore, that all men should enjoy the

 

fullest toleration in the exercise or religion, according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and

 

unrestrained by the magistrate, unless, under the color of religion, any man disturb the peace, the

 

happiness, or the safety of society; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance,

 

love, and charity for each other.”

 

The difference between this article and the First Amendment,  is between the free exercise of religion and toleration.  Where did the young James Madison learn this principle? From the Baptists and their persecution in Orange and Culpeper Counties, Virginia.  Also this Declaration of Rights became the pattern of many other colonial declarations. Article 16 was the basis of the establishment and free exercise clauses of our federal Constitution.

 

May we never forget and may we pass on to our posterity that a vital part of our Baptist heritage involves religious liberty in America.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I. (Thompson and Cummins) pp. 242 -243.