Randy McCarthy
Bill McCarthy
Podcast: Download (Duration: 42:31 — 13.9MB)
Referenced Biography: John Leland (1754-1841)
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.”