The legacy of Baptist preacher John Leland – fierce proponent of church-state separation and soul freedom during the founding of our country – is best appreciated by reading the words of the man himself. Some of my favorites:
The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever…Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians. – from A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia
One way to surely underappreciate the legacy of John Leland is to follow recent recipients of the Southern Baptist Convention's John Leland Award. As Americans United's Joe Conn points out and rightly laments, the award this year was given to Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund.
What?! Surely not a religious liberty award for the guy who leads a mega-bucks legal campaign to dismantle Jefferson’s (and Leland’s) wall of separation between church and state!
I wonder what Leland would think of the idea of allowing houses of worship to become tax-free political campaign machines, the practice of appropriating government funds to prop up the work of some religious organizations, or of taxpayer funds being used to hire workers of only one acceptable faith?
The true legacy of Leland is one who recognized the real capacity of government to persecute the adherents of minority faiths, who knew that if members of any religious persuasion were discriminated against, then the religious freedom of all is threatened, and who saw that our freedom of conscience is diminished when government lends a hand to any one faith.
