...influence it by temporal punishments or burdens or by civil incapacitations [only] tend to [produce] habits of hypocrisy and meanness and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion ... Be it enacted by the General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any...

...God hath created the mind free All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens ... are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion. . . . The second to the right is a famous excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: We hold these...

...precursor of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, stated that all attempts to coerce religion "are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion." But even if most religious Americans hold that view, this would not explain why they think it wrong...

...free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitation, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,...either, as was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves...

...attempts to influence [the mind] by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,...coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, But to extend it by its influence on reason alone." These ideals become securely moored to the daily...

...that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,...not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as...

...that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,...chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as...

...be left free from coercion. To say that government coercion is allowed in matters of a religion is "a departure from the plan of the holy author of our...mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either."26 To say that religion should be encouraged by government support is another religious error....

...centuries, "all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments and burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,...from the plan of the Holy author of our religion." As Jefferson saw it, state churches in Europe, stereotypically with bloated, corrupt hierarchies, invoked...

...created the mind free... that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens... tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,...departure from the plan of the holy author of our blessed religion, who being lord of both body and mind, yet choose not to propagate it by coercions...