On Independence from the Established Church
By Dr. R. Scott Clark - Posted at The Heidelblog: Published July 4, 2026 "For the American founders, one of the unalienable rights with which humans have been endowed is the right to gather in worship freely, according to the dictates of conscience, without being molested by the magistrate and without being made by the magistrate to subsidize and support a religion or denomination." In preparing for its 250th anniversary, I reread the Declaration of Independence . What it says and does not say is fascinating. In between hot dogs, slices of apple pie, and before dusk falls and the fireworks commence in earnest, every American ought to reread it today. Every school child knows (or should know) that Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) wrote the Declaration, borrowing from earlier documents. My interest in this essay is to note the pragmatic approach to religion in the Declaration.1 As Richard Carwardine observes, the signers of the Declaration represented a number of different Christi...
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