\n\tRoger Williams was the apostle of religious liberty—of soul liberty in the New World. He had the high honor, in the providence of God, of being the first
\n\tman to establish in practice the emancipation of the conscience of man from the fetter of politico-ecclesiastical rule. He became the harbinger of
\n\treligious liberty in its true sense and reality, and pointed the true way for the greatest Republic of a free and democratic people. We Americans owe a
\n\tdebt of gratitude to Roger Williams—as preacher, prophet, and statesman—which we cannot pay in any better way than to defend and preserve the precious
\n\theritage of civil and religious liberty which he has bequeathed to posterity for the benefit of all mankind.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tHis ideal of the proper relationship of church and state and his political philosophy and principles of government perhaps cannot be summed up in a more
\n\tconcise form than in his own words:\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe civil sword may make a nation of hypocrites, and anti-Christians, but not one Christian.\u201d \u201cForcing of conscience is a soul-rape.\u201d \u201cPersecution for
\n\tconscience [hath been] the lancet that letteth [the] blood of kings and kingdoms.\u201d \u201cMan hath no power to make laws to bind conscience.\u201d \u201cThe civil
\n\tcommonwealth and the spiritual commonwealth, the church, not inconsistent, though independent, the one on the other.\u201d \u201cThe civil magistrate owes to false
\n\tworshipers, (1) permission, (2) protection.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIf this fundamental principle of civil government had always been recognized and followed, there never would have been any religious persecution in this
\n\tworld.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRoger Williams not only believed and taught this principle of government, but he practiced it. After having successfully operated this experiment in Rhode
\n\tIsland for twenty-seven years, he embodied, in 1663, in the memorial charter for the Commonwealth and English Colony of Rhode Island his fundamental tenet,
\n\tas follows:\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNo person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be in any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences
\n\tin opinion, in matter of religion, who do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said colony; but that all and every person and persons may, from time
\n\tto time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have and enjoy his own and their own judgments and consciences, in matters of religious concernments,
\n\tthroughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly and not using this liberty to licentiousness and
\n\tprofaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward disturbance of others.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIn this charter are set forth the matchless provisions which were incorporated one hundred and twenty-six years later in the Federal Constitution of the
\n\tUnited States of America, \u201cCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,\u201d and similar
\n\tprovisions in the respective State constitutions.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThus Roger Williams became the builder of the ideals of a new nation, which was destined to influence the ideals of many other nations. The equality of all
\n\tmen and of all religions before the law, without special privileges and preferences to any, was the cardinal principle in the government founded by Roger
\n\tWilliams. He not only legislated for his day, but, as he hoped, for \u201call times hereafter.\u201d As long as men conducted themselves \u201cpeaceably\u201d and \u201ccivilly,\u201d
\n\tthey were not to be punished on account of their religious beliefs or practices. No one was to suffer any civil disability by reason of his religious
\n\tfavor, provided he respected the equal rights of all others.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tEspecially was Roger Williams opposed to any financial alliances between the church and the state such as compelled people to be taxed by the state for the
\n\taid and support of any sort of religion. He did not believe that any person elected to public office should ever take advantage of his public office
\n\tthrough legislation or the administration of his civil duties, to promote the religious interests of religious organizations, nor should he ever attempt to
\n\tsettle religious controversies by law, or give preference by judicial decisions to religious opinions, creeds, usages, or customs. His attachment to the
\n\tequality of all men before the law, placed a self-restraint upon the exercise of his own liberty concerning his own religious creed while exercising the
\n\tfunctions of public office.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRoger Williams lived in advance of his age. The New World was not yet ready to adopt his liberal ideals. While he held strong religious convictions, he did
\n\tnot allow those convictions to develop in him the spirit of intolerance toward his opponents. The most difficult lesson which mankind must learn and keep
\n\tconstantly in mind, especially when one is entrusted with power and authority over others, is that religious truth, which we deem most precious and
\n\tparamount, can never be advanced through coercion upon others. The purest faith can become corrupt by the employment of unholy and unsanctified means and
\n\tmeasures to promote it. In fact, the adherents of the purest and most exalted faith are ever tempted to employ the instrument of misguided zeal in the hope
\n\tof its advancement.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRoger Williams lived in the days when bigotry and intolerance were making war against all who attempted to follow their own religious convictions
\n\tindependently of the established state religion. Whatever religion happened to be the state religion, whether Protestant or Catholic, the individual who
\n\thad religious opinions of his own was not allowed to practice them. He was haunted and hunted night and day, and denied all semblance of liberty—both civil
\n\tand religious. It cost something to be an independent and free Christian in those days of religious intolerance and persecution.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRoger Williams denied the right of the civil government to rule in all things, both temporal and spiritual. All governments in Europe were either
\n\ttotalitarian or authoritarian in form or in practice. No man could call his soul his own. He existed solely for the benefit of the state. All his
\n\tactivities in life were regulated, regimented, and restricted. Some of the governments in Europe today are reverting to the medieval type, and the results
\n\tare conditions similar to those of medieval times. Whenever the consciences of men are controlled by the civil authorities, the destruction of liberty—both
\n\tcivil and religious—always follows. Wherever religious dogma is made subservient to the authority of the state, those who dissent from the state religion
\n\tare regarded as enemies of both religion and the state.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tThose who attempt by legislative authority and arbitrary power to dominate the consciences of all men in all things, both temporal and spiritual, do so
\n\tunder the mistaken conception that they are keeping the true religion from being perverted and corrupted; but as a matter of fact, these self-appointed
\n\tprotectors of religion become, through their ill-conceived and misguided zeal and devotion, the real perverters and corrupters of religion.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tRoger Williams struggled manfully to put an end to religious intolerance and persecution. By advocating the principle of essential justice and the equality
\n\tof all men before the law, irrespective of religious creed, nationality, or race, he struck a death blow to the totalitarian and authoritarian forms of
\n\tgovernment. His seed of truth and liberty and justice for all men alike, found deep root in American soil, and it was in America that he finally succeeded
\n\tin establishing his ideal form of government—that after which the American Republic was modeled more than a century later. We must look to Roger Williams,
\n\tmore than to Jefferson or Madison, as the true builder of our American Bill of Rights, because all the provisions of civil and religious liberty as set
\n\tforth in the matchless Constitution of the United States, were incorporated in principle in the charter of Rhode Island as conceived and framed by Roger
\n\tWilliams.\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBoth Jefferson and Madison had the writings of this first and greatest of all Americans who formed the ideals and principles of civil government in Rhode
\n\tIsland, and they gave vital breath to those immortal and immutable principles of human rights and liberties in the Declaration of Independence and in the
\n\tBill of Rights of the Federal Constitution of the American Republic. The great apostle of soul liberty was the instrument that gave inspiration and
\n\tguidance to the shaping of the fundamental law of a nation which was destined to become the champion of the rights of all men. It is only as we continue to
\n\tlive in the spirit and devotion of these great ideals of human liberty, of the inalienable rights of all men, and maintain and preserve both our civil and
\n\tour religious freedom, which has been bequeathed to us as a precious blood-bought heritage, that we can hope for protection, for peace, for prosperity, and
\n\tfor human happiness, and that we can be saved from the errors and delusions which have led astray the nations of the past.\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roger Williams was the apostle of religious liberty—of soul liberty in the New World. He had the high honor, in the providence of God, of being the first man to establish in practice the emancipation of the conscience of man from the fetter of politico-ecclesiastical rule. He became the harbinger of religious liberty in its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[310],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-6338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-january-february-2016","tag-january-february-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}