Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry Debate Church and State

For political junkies like myself, I see how heated the debate on the relationship between church and state can get. Did you know the topic was just as controversial nearly 250 years ago as our founders were building our great nation?

Thomas Jefferson is most famously known as the writer of the Declaration of Independence. But he’s also known as a champion for the separation of church and state. In 1802, Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”

That very last phrase, “a wall of separation between church and state,” has itself been the subject of a hot debate. Supreme Court justices have disagreed on what Jefferson meant by it.

On the other side is Patrick Henry. Henry was the first governor of Virginia and said to have been a hothead and a loudmouth of sorts. I had to recite part of his famous “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech when I was in elementary school and I painted the phrase on a mug that sits on my desk. I thought it would be fitting for my job.

While Jefferson never really spoke of his own personal religious beliefs, Henry was a very religious man. In 1784, Henry sponsored a “general assessment” bill. Under the bill, taxpayers would pay a tax to a church of their choice. That bill was heavily contested by James Madison and others and did not pass.

Not long after, the General Assembly passed the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

You can watch Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry debate the relationship between church and state in person as part of Religion Month here in the Revolutionary City. Click here for dates and times.

Additionally, take a listen to a podcast featuring both sides of the debate. Click here for Jefferson’s take. Click here for Henry’s take.