Religious Liberty, Elder John Leland

Randy McCarthy

 

 

 


Bill McCarthy

 

 


Referenced Biography:  John Leland   (1754-1841)

Baptist minister John Leland. Image courtesy of ARDA ...

John Leland led Baptists in Virginia in the struggle for religious freedom.  He ardently opposed the idea that the United States was a Christian commonwealth and fervently championed separating church and state.  He wrote:

“No national church can in its organization, be the Gospel Church.  A National church takes in the whole Nation, and no more; whereas, the Gospel Church, takes in no Nation, but those who fear God, and work righteousness in every Nation.  The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever. . . . If all the souls in a government were saints of God, should they be formed into a society by law, that society could not be a Gospel Church, but a creature of state.”