For nearly 400 years, Baptists have been strong defenders of freedom of conscience, religious liberty and church-state separation. John Leland, a colonial evangelist preaching in Virginia, boldly advocated religious liberty and the separation of church and state and played an integral role in disestablishing the Anglican church in the commonwealth. His chief contribution was helping to convince our nation’s founders, including James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, of the need for specific guarantees protecting religious freedom in the Bill of Rights. He later returned to his native Massachusetts where he continued to speak out in favor of religious liberty and against state-established religion.
In 1804, Leland said that experience “has informed us that the fondness of magistrates [the government] to foster Christianity has done it more harm than all the persecutions ever did.”
Explain Leland’s statement and, drawing from historical and contemporary examples, assess his claim.
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