I don’t know about you but I’d never even heard of “Religious Freedom Day” (it’s today). It’s not surprising, I guess, in this low-information culture that such a day would be widely ignored by the old media. Here’s a website dedicated to it and here’s the Wikipedia page on it.
From American Thinker:
January 16th is observed as Religious Freedom Day in America. On this day in 1786, the General Assembly in Richmond passed the sweeping Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. First proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1779, it was Jefferson ‘s most loyal lieutenant, James Madison, who shepherded this vital measure through the lawmaking process.
That world event assured that Virginians would not be taxed to support churches they did not attend and whose doctrines they rejected. “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” wrote Jefferson about this signal achievement. It also meant that members of religious minorities would be eligible to hold any office in the state. This principle was formative in the Constitutional prohibition of “any religious test” in 1787.
Today, we find religious freedom in grave jeopardy.
