Religion and Intellectual Freedom, Quotations

Doug Archer

Here are several quotations on the relationship of religious freedom and civil liberties which may prove helpful in the defense of either or both. They are taken from Great Quotations on Religious Freedom compiled and edited by Albert J. Menendez and Edd Doerr (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002).

30. Civil liberty can be established on no foundation of human reason which will not at the same time demonstrate the right to religious freedom. . . . President John Quincy Adams, Letter to Richard Anderson, May 27, 1823

31. Civil liberties scarcely thrive where religious liberties are disregarded and the reverse is equally true. Beneath them all is a philosophy of liberty which assumes a measure of variety in human behavior, honors integrity, respects the dignity of man, and seeks to exemplify the compassion of God. Roland Bainton, The Travail of Religious Liberty (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), p. 175

33. Religious Liberty is so blended with civil liberty that if one falls it is not expected that the other will continue. Rev. Charles Turner, Duxbury, Mass., Election Sermon, 1773

34. God grant that in American true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable. John Witherspoon, President of Princeton University, Address at Princeton, May 17, 1776

87. We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions . . . shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power . . . we may expect that improvements will be made in human character and the state of society. President John Adams, Letter to Dr. Price, April 8, 1785

90. It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others. President Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803

141. Religious pluralisim and equality -- never mere toleration -- should be essential parts of what makes American democracy special. Stephen L. Carter. The Culture of Disbelief (New York: Basic Books, 1993), p. 21

349. Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the princples of Christianity and civility. Roger Williams, The Bloody Tenet of Persecution (1640)