Religious Pluralism

Colonial Pluralism

Anglicans dominated colonial Virginia and other southern areas, but persons of other persuasions settled in the region. The Fundamental Constitutions shaping early South Carolina welcomed even nonbelievers. Colonial patterns reveal a theme that recurs in the story of diversity, namely, the ties [Page 1834]between ethnicity and religion. The Dutch who came to New Netherland brought the Dutch Reformed Church; settlers from Scandinavian countries, various ethnic strains of Lutheranism to what became New Jersey. Quaker William Penn recruited German sectarian groups to come to his proprietary settlement. Although the Calvert family hoped to make Maryland a haven for English Catholics, they, too, welcomed others. Even in New England, home to various Puritan clusters, diversity lurked beneath the surface. In the 17th century, for example, after Roger Williams was asked to leave Massachusetts because of his radical views, he spearheaded settlement of Rhode Island. By the later 18th century, diversity within Puritanism became more evident; some identified as Baptists or even Unitarians. Wherever Scots-Irish immigrants settled, Presbyterianism flourished. Adding to diversity were Jewish colonists, Native Americans whose religious styles colonists rarely appreciated, and the increasing number of enslaved Africans brought to America.

Colonial diversity had implications for education. New England Puritans, for example, believed that reading the Bible was essential to faith and also insisted on having educated pastors, some of whom served as schoolmasters. Fledgling colleges, such as Harvard College (founded in 1636) and Yale (founded in 1701), prepared young men for the ministry. More secular ones, such as Virginia's College of William and Mary (1693), had a religious tone, since nearly all early college presidents were clergymen. Efforts to convert Native Americans also had educational ramifications, as missionaries developed written forms for native languages so converts could read the Bible.

The Revolutionary era cemented pluralism's foundations. Evangelical Protestants regarding personal religious experience as paramount made people—not religious or political institutions—the final authority. Rationalists influenced by the Enlightenment also challenged traditional authority. For them, reason alone determined belief, not priest or king. Both approaches created an ethos nurturing political freedom and religious diversity. Religious freedom received legal sanction in 1786 with Virginia's passage of The Act for Establishing Religious Freedom (commonly known as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom) in 1786, which provided for nearly total liberty in religious matters. The Virginia law, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, was a precursor to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, passed in 1789 and ratified in 1791, that prohibited the government from passing legislation establishing an official religion or preferring one religion over another. It also protected “free exercise” in matters of religious belief and practice.

...