Handout A: A Connected Church and State

A Connected Church and State

Directions: Read the following quotations that support a close connection between the church and the government. For each, identify the reasons used to justify this position, and rephrase the reasons in your own words.

1. Massachusetts Constitution, Article III, 1780

As the happiness of a people, and the good order and preservation of civil government, essentially depend upon piety, religion and morality; and as these cannot be generally diffused through a community, but by the institution of the public worship of God, and of public instructions in piety, religion and morality: Therefore, to promote their happiness and to secure the good order and preservation of their government, the people of this commonwealth have a right to invest their legislature with power to authorize and require… the several towns, parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or religious societies, to make suitable provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of God, and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion and morality, in all cases where such provision shall not be made voluntarily.

The church and government should be connected because…

2. Patrick Henry: A Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion, 1784

[T]he general diffusion of Christian knowledge hath a natural tendency to correct the morals of men, restrain their vices, and preserve the peace of society.…

The church and government should be connected because…

3. Memorial from Clergy of the Established Church, Virginia, 8 Nov. 1776

[T]he Doctrines of Christianity have a greater Tendency to produce Virtue amongst men than any human Laws or Institutions; and … these can be best taught and preserved in their Purity in an established Church…

The church and government should be connected because…

4. Debate North Carolina Ratifying Convention, 30 July 1788

[I]f there be no religious test required, pagans, deists, and Mahometans might obtain offices among us, and that the senators and representatives might all be pagans.

The church and government should be connected because…

Summary – Arguments in Favor of Established Church