Freedom of religion, as we understand it, did not exist in America
until after the American Revolution. The Church of England was legally made the
established church. The established church was closely linked to the political
and financial elites.
By the time of the
Revolution, “dissenters”, non-Anglican colonists who were predominantly Baptists or Presbyterians, made up a
sizeable portion of the population.
Although tolerated, dissenters were required to pay taxes to support the
Anglican Church, in addition to paying for their own church and pastor. Dissenting pastors and their meetinghouses
had to receive licenses a colony’s General Court. Additionally, the law
dictated that only ministers of the established church could legally perform baptisms, marriage ceremonies, and funerals, which
resulted in such anomalies as requiring a Lutheran minister to become an
ordained minister of the Church of England in order to legally perform a
marriage ceremony in his own church.
Some
dissenters refused to comply with the law. Many believed that preaching need
not be confined to the pulpit and that the state had no right to dictate where
and to whom believers could preach the gospel.
The
principle of protecting religious pluralism would subsequently be included in
the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1791.
Secrets of Early America 1607-1816
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment