Two weeks ago, I wrote here about the most important national day most of us have never heard of: Religious Freedom Day. That post was also a call to action.
What if we seized this day to think dynamically about the religious freedoms we take for granted at our peril; freedom that is in danger of being redefined beyond recognition. What if we decided to seize this day to consider our best values as a nation and advance the cause of equal rights for all?
Kossack elenacarlena has taken up the call and is organizing a day of action on on Religious Freedom Day, Friday January 16th. In addition to participating here, she and others have already said that they will be writing pieces for their local newspapers and have called for a wider range of activities as well.
I am honored to be able to report that since I first wrote about this in an op-ed at LGBTQ Nation -- the idea of taking up Religious Freedom Day in defense of our rights has resonated widely and deeply. A number of national organizations, both religious and non-religious will be adopting the Day for the first time.
What once seemed like a dusty and obscure bit of history to almost everyone -- is suddenly being understood by us all as having profound and pivotal meaning for our present. Religious freedom has become one of the central issues of our time. And the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson is one of the most important documents in the history of religious freedom.
Religious Freedom Day was designated by Congress in 1991 and first celebrated the following year in honor of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. The bill was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1777 and finally politicked into law by James Madison in 1786. In it are the unambiguous roots of the meaning of the Constitution and the First Amendment regarding these founders' thinking about religion and public life. The following year in 1787, Madison traveled to Philadelphia to be one of the principal authors of the Constitution. Five years later as a Member of Congress, he was the principal author of the First Amendment. (I wrote about it in more detail here, and Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State further explicated the background of the Day and also called for action, here).
But religious freedom is being used as the tip of the spear of the Christian Right's attack on women's reproductive freedom; as well as LGBTQ civil rights, especially marriage equality; and separation of church & state. We saw this on stunning display in the Supreme Court case of Hobby vs. Burwell last year, which for the first time recognized the religious rights of a corporation to impose them on its employees. Similarly, we are seeing the spread of proposed state level Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, some of which allow for faith-based discrimination against LGBTQ people. (One is now law in Mississippi.) Some 60 organizations coalesced to address Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, as the Coalition for Liberty and Justice, which continues to contend for religious freedom for all in our time.
What I think we all need to do, is to drink down a tall glass of the powerful vision and conviction of the Revolutionary Era that is our heritage—the dynamism of people who simultaneously threw off the control of the British Empire and politically powerful churches. We need a 21st century style of owning this history, surfacing those kinds of feelings, and connecting them to the vision of equality and justice in the face of the challenges of our time.
The time is now to seize the day -- Religious Freedom Day!
Please join us!
We will have better resource lists in the run up to Religious Freedom Day, but here are a few for those who are thinking about getting involved -- as well as a caveat emptor or two.
Check out this foundational (but readable) study, Redefining Religious Liberty: The Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights, by Jay Michaelson, at Political Research Associates.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State has the text of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and of James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments -- a manifesto against Patrick Henry's bill that would have as Rob Boston explains required citizens to pay a tax “for the support of the Christian religion, or of some Christian church, denomination or communion of Christians, or for some form of Christian worship.” Madison's campaign against the Henry bill, paved the way for passage of Jefferson's bill.
The Encyclopedia of Virginia has an excellent and reliable history of the origins and development of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, written by historian John Ragosta.
There is a new museum and education about the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom opening in Richmond, VA on Religious Freedom Day 2015. The First Freedom Center is backed by the downtown business community that originally pushed for the creation of Religious Freedom Day. It represents a range of points of view, has many useful resources, and is housed in a new Marriott hotel.
As I reported at Political Research Associates, the web site ReligiousFreedomDay.com, which comes up first in a Google search for Religious Freedom Day, is not what it seems. The group behind it is a small California evangelical Christian Right agency called Gateways to Better Education, headed by longtime activist, Eric Buehrer. This group is part of a wider movement with a long history of efforts to hijack, or compromise, public schools in order to promote its religious views and to evangelize children. (This is detailed in The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children, by Katherine Stewart.)