John Leland Quotes

When the government says to you that they want to help you be more religious, you want to run away from them as fast as possible.

Resist this war on God, freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

I don’t see a bit of danger from us having an established religion.

The Catholics had the right secured to them by the Constitution of worshipping the God of their fathers in the manner dictated by their consciences.... This country is not prepared to establish an inquisition to try and punish men for their religious beliefs.

Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform

Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will.

Religious liberty, hey, it's about religious liberty. And there has to be a melding of both. We're living in a time where you have to have a melding of both. But it's very unfair what they're doing to religion in this country.

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.

The religion that has to be supported by law is without value, not only, but a fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a musket is hardly worth making.

It is difficult to discern a serious threat to religious liberty from a room of silent, thoughtful schoolchildren.

I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion.

Religious freedom, often referred to as the first freedom, is of central import to the American experiment. As such it should feature prominently in U.S. foreign policy.

I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.

All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All separated from government, are compatible with liberty.

The new United States took the lead among the nations of the earth in the establishment of religious freedom. That is one reason America has never had any religious wars or any religious persecutions.

Zealous groups threaten to infringe civil liberties when they seek government support to impose their own religious views on non-adherents. This has taken many forms, including attempts to introduce organized prayer in public schools, to outlaw birth control and abortion, and to use public tax revenues to finance religious schools.

Every American has the constitutional right not to be taxed or have his tax money expended for the establishment of a religion.

The 1st Amendment was established to ensure, in addition to free exercise, that the state did not have the power to establish any particular religious teaching.

... the loathsome combination of church and state.

We allow none ... to be dragged to the alters unwillingly.

The man or the country that fights priestcraft and priests is to my mind striking deeper for freedom than can be struck anywhere.

We stand for a free church in a free state. Neither one should control the affairs of the other. We support the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, with its "establishment" and "free exercise" clauses.

We do not expect that Congress is acquainted with our religious faith; but ... we do claim the guarantees of the Constitution and immunity from persecution on merely religious grounds.

Americans did not come here to escape religion. The came here to escape established religion.

Government has no more right to help us Christians flaunt our beliefs than it has to suppress any faith.