"The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on September 29, 2024, during a conference on “Christianity in America.' ” Glenn Ellmers
"The question which we and all American patriots confront today is whether we still understand and appreciate this incredible gift of religious liberty bequeathed to us by the Founders. Do we still have the knowledge and courage to keep alive the sacred fire of liberty?
"One of the most beautiful things written during the American Founding period is George Washington’s 1790 Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Washington had visited Newport in August of that year, and shortly after his visit, one of the leaders of the Jewish community sent Washington a letter thanking him and congratulating him on his conduct as president."
"Washington responded, in part:
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. . . . May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.
"Washington here magnificently summarizes the principle of religious liberty, a principle at the heart of the American Founding and one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. Today, this principle has been under assault—think of the vicious antisemitism we have seen on many college campuses recently or the persecution of Christians by our federal government. The faith of American Christians and Jews has been mocked and increasingly threatened by an aggressively secular, even atheistic, ruling class.
"We are in danger of losing the precious gift of religious liberty, which took almost 2,000 years for the Christian West to put into practice." . . .More
"Glenn Ellmers is the Salvatori Research Fellow in the American Founding at the Claremont Institute. He received a B.A. from Boston University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University. He has served as a visiting research fellow at Hillsdale College and as a speechwriter for two cabinet secretaries. He has written for numerous publications, including the Claremont Review of Books, The New Criterion, Perspectives on Political Science, Law & Liberty, and The American Mind." . . .
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