Understanding Religious Liberty – Leland and Madison
This article features quotes from a sixty-eight page article in the Penn State Law Review. The title is “John Leland and James Madison: Religious Influence on the Ratification of the Constitution and on the Proposal of the Bill of Rights,” written by Mark S. Scarberry, professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law. ((Note from John Mincy: You can read John Leland here: “The Writings of Elder John Leland.”))
“This article suggests that concerns of Virginia Baptists about religious liberty—including particularly the concerns of one Baptist preacher, John Leland—played a substantial role in James Madison’s elections to the Virginia ratifying convention in March of 1788 and to the First Congress in February of 1789.”1
“It is extraordinarily difficult to believe that Madison could have understood the Establishment Clause as creating a wall of separation that would prohibit (or disfavor) the very political activity that had enabled him to win election, serve in the First Congress, and argue for adoption of the Establishment Clause; that is, Leland’s political activity in his role as a religious leader, political activity that had been crucial to giving Madison the opportunity to be in Congress and to propose the Bill of Rights. … At the very least, Leland’s role in furthering the proposal of the Bill of Rights casts doubt on any approach to the Establishment Clause that would limit or discourage participation by religious leaders and religious communities in the political arena. Although this article will focus on Leland’s relationship with Madison in connection with the elections of March 1788 and February 1789, it is important to note Leland’s relationship with Thomas Jefferson as well. Leland indeed was Jefferson’s “friend and ally,” as Hamburger puts it. It was, of course, in his famous January 1, 1802 letter to a group of Connecticut Baptists, the Danbury Baptist Association, that Jefferson described the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses as “building a wall of separation between Church and State. … But that same day, New Year’s Day, 1802, Jefferson welcomed Leland, a very politically active religious leader, to Washington. Leland had led the delegation that brought Jefferson the 1,235 pound “Mammoth Cheese” produced in Massachusetts from the milk of good Republican cows. Leland had preached all along the way. “Two days later, at the President’s invitation, [Leland] preached before both houses of Congress on the text ‘Behold a greater than Solomon is here.” It seems that Sunday worship services had been held regularly in the House chamber since December 1800 …”2
Scarberry writes, “The author hopes that this article will create greater awareness of John Leland, of his fascinating life, of the important role he played in our constitutional history, of his commitment to religious liberty for all, of his faith, of his humor, of his criticism of slavery, and of his engaging, plain-spoken manner of communicating. His writings will reward study, and the reader is likely to enjoy the effort. As Butterfield says,
“In the long fight he waged Leland showed great tenacity of purpose and real intellectual breadth. He had still other commendable qualities, among them a gift of humor which endeared his audiences to him and which distinguishes his published writings from the great mass of religious and political oratory of the time.”3
Scarberry concludes his article by writing, “Can Leland help us to escape our period’s “characteristic mistakes”? Perhaps. After all, if Lyman Henry Butterfield — ‘not one who found much use for religious symbols or for religion as an institution’ — could say, after spending years editing Jefferson’s papers, that John Leland, an itinerant Baptist preacher, ‘was as courageous and resourceful a champion of the rights of conscience as America has produced’ — as courageous and resourceful as Jefferson? — perhaps Leland has something to say to us.”4
The whole article is of great interest. You can download it here. John Mincy notes: do not let the fact that this article is sixty-eight pages long discourage you from reading it. It seems that at least half of it is footnotes for those who wish to do intensive study.
John Mincy was a church planter in Singapore and California and is now pastor emeritus of Heritage Baptist Church in Antioch, California.
Resources on this topic:
- The Contested Public Square – Greg Forster
- Politics According to the Bible – Wayne Grudem