Isaac Backus Quotes
Religious matters are to be separated from the jurisdiction of the state not because they are beneath the interests of the state, but, quite to the contrary, because they are too high and holy and thus are beyond the competence of the state.
Backus was the first of the American clerics to espouse the position that in order for there to be a Christian nation, the state must be separate from the Church.
Isaac Backus, 1724-1806, Baptist leader of Colonial Massachusetts, Quoted on ThinkExist.com, May 20, 2004
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This book is endorsed by major religious organizations of all faiths as well as National School Boards Association, National Education Association, National PTA, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Association of Elementary School Principals, American Association of School Administrators and others. It is used as a guideline by most schools systems in the United States.
The same phrase was used by Count de Montalembert at a Catholic conference in Malines, August 20, 1863, and is sometimes attributed to him.
This quotation is one of the first to make the critical observation that the only time that tolerance of a religion is necessary is when there is an established church and others that deviate from it. If there is no established church, as the Founding Fathers envisioned, there is no preeminent church to do the tolerating. All are equal. In practice, Protestant churches were proportionately dominant in early America and up through the 20th century. So most of the issue of tolerance problems in America were cultural. And there is still a minority of Christians who believe that America should be a Christian country and other religions should be “tolerated.” However, Clinton and most of the founders did not want to see even general Christianity established as the national religion even they it was the majority religion.
This appears to be one of the first religious groups to withdraw and separate from a state church.
At the time. Catholics in America were proportionately many fewer than today, and anti-Catholic sentiment and discrimination was very common. If the government then could become involved with religion, the protestant-dominated government would likely have restricted the Church and Catholics. So Catholics were, like Bishop England an absolutist for the separation of church and state. However towards the end of the 20th century, Roman Catholics were about 25% of the population and anti-Catholic sentiment was reduced to relatively few Protest extremists, who were rejected by the main stream even of Protestants. Then the Catholic bishops began to change their position and advocated Federal aid to parochial schools and various Catholic social services. They also began to lobby government to make laws enforcing the Catholic views of morality.
Isaac Backus was a leading Baptist preacher during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England.
