What I find remarkable is not only that evangelicals today
remain so ignorant of their own history, but also that as a
consequence they have now changed their position to support
greater state engagement with religion.

If we revere the wisdom of the Founders, then surely we have
to revere their position on State and Church.  This position
developed adherants largely because evangelical Christians in
Virginia wisely perceived that "accomodation" of Church and
State was not in their best interest.  Strict separation, and
not accomodation, originated in Virginia, and with the full
and dedicated support of Virginia's reformed Christian sects.

Madison's "Memorial and Remonstrance" contains arguments
designed to appeal to the coalition that ultimately formed the
majority and passed Jefferson's bill.  Some of his arguments
appeal to the enlightenment rationalism of men like Jefferson.
 But a number are straight out of Luther and Calvin, and
ultimately from Paul's letters.  The City of Man and the City
of God are two radically separate things, and the one is
rather more sinful and corrupt than the other.  It would be
foolish indeed to structure society to allow those who immerse
themselves in the City of Man to regulate what happens in the
City of God.  That's an argument evangelicals, of all people,
should find amply confirmed in their own history.  

If they *knew* their own history, of course.  Therein lies the
rub.

All best,
Kevin

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 03:48:23 -0500
>From: Jurretta Heckscher <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: Re: Wren Cross at W&M  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>On Feb 22, 2007, at 9:45 AM, Sam Treynor wrote:
>
>> "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion"  
>> appears
>> to prohibit Congress from interfering with the
establishment of  
>> religion by
>> a State, most of which had established religions at the
time the
>> Constitution was adopted.
>>
>
>A number did, but Virginia very notably did not: the Statute
for  
>Religious Freedom  
>(http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwedo/k12/bor/vsrftext.htm#trans),  
>prohibiting any state establishment of religion, was passed
more than a  
>year before the U.S. Constitution was created and several
years before  
>the Bill of Rights.  Is this most historic of Virginia's laws
no longer  
>in effect?  And if it is in effect, shouldn't it be the
reference point  
>for this discussion, at least as much as is the First Amendment?
>
>It should also perhaps be noted that the governing body of the  
>University of Virginia was from the beginning (when it
included both  
>Jefferson and Madison) at great pains to avoid any hint of
religious  
>partiality at the University, as evinced by the following
passage in  
>one of Jefferson's letters:
>
>"In the Rockfish report [which led to the founding of the
University]  
>it was stated as probable that a building larger than the
Pavilions  
>might be called for in time, in which might be rooms for a
library, for  
>public examinations, and for religious worship  <ital>under
such  
>impartial regulations as the Visitors should
prescribe</ital>,  the  
>legislature neither sanctioned nor rejected this proposition;
and  
>afterwards, in the Report of Oct 1822. the board suggested,
as a  
>substitute, that the different religious sects should be
invited to  
>establish their separate theological schools in the vicinity
of the  
>University, in which the Students might attend religious
worship, each  
>in the form of his respective sect, and thus avoid all
jealousy of  
>attempts on his religious tenets. among the enactments of the
board is  
>one looking to this object, and superseding the first idea of  
>permitting a room in the Rotunda to be used for religious
worship, and  
>of undertaking to frame a set of regulations of equality and  
>impartiality among the multiplied sects. I state these things
as  
>manifesting the caution which the board of Visitors thinks it
a duty to  
>observe on this delicate and jealous subject."  (Jefferson to
Arthur  
>Spicer Brockenbrough, April 21, 1825,  
>http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-singleauthor?specfile=/web/

>data/jefferson/tex  [italics in original].)
>
>It is really quite remarkable that--as some of the comments
on this  
>thread make clear--this approach to religion at a public
university  
>remains controversial in Virginia 182 years later.
>
>--Jurretta J. Heckscher
>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
instructions
>at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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