thomas jefferson established a safe haven for religious freedom in what is now pennsylvania.
thomas jefferson established a safe haven for religious freedom in what is now pennsylvania.
who established a safe haven for religious freedom in what is now pennsylvania?
thomas jefferson
rhode island (1636), connecticut (1636), new jersey, and pennsylvania (1682) founded by protestants roger williams, thomas hooker, and william penn, respectively combined the democratic form of government which had been developed by the puritans and the separatist congregationalists in massachusetts with religious freedom. these colonies became sanctuaries for persecuted religious minorities. catholics and later on jews also had full citizenship and free exercise of their religions. williams, hooker, penn, and their friends were firmly convinced that freedom of conscience was the will of god. williams gave the most profound argument: as faith is the free work of the holy spirit, it cannot be forced on a person. therefore, strict separation of church and state has to be kept. pennsylvania was the only colony that retained unlimited religious freedom until the foundation of the united states in 1776. it was the inseparable connection between democracy, religious freedom, and the other forms of freedom which became the political and legal basis of the new nation. in particular, baptists and presbyterians demanded the disestablishment of state churches anglican and congregationalist and the protection of religious freedom.
freedom of religion
the differences between h.r. 2431, the "freedom from religious persecution act" and s. 1868, the "international religious freedom act", were comprehensive, but can be summarized as a narrow focus in frpa on punishing worst violators, compared with irfa's worldwide focus on promoting religious freedom, using both positive and negative incentives. h.r.2431 affected a handful of countries and religious groups, with mandatory sanctions if a persecution monitoring "tzar" in the white house found that persecution was "widespread and ongoing" "when such persecution includes abduction, enslavement, killing, imprisonment, forced mass resettlement, rape, or crucifixion, or other forms of torture" (https://www.congress.gov/bill/105th-congress/house-bill/1685/text). this definition was so extreme as to exclude most countries in which gross violations of international religious freedom take place. irfa, in contrast, used the internationally recognized definitions of "gross violations of human rights" in the requirement to take action in persecuting countries, on behalf of any religious believers. further, irfa put in place a comprehensive structure headed by a high-ranking diplomat who could negotiate with other governments on behalf of the president, rather than a mid-level white house official tasked with making findings, under frpa. irfa also established the annual report on international religious freedom, which requires us embassies all over the world to interact with their counterparts and ngo's in the process of reporting, as well as requiring the us to state what efforts it has undertaken to promote religious freedom. in addition to the ambassador at large for international religious freedom, and the annual report, the cornerstone of irfa is the requirement that each year the president review and determine whether any country has met the threshold, based on international human rights law, of "country of particular concern" or cpc, engaging in or tolerating "particularly severe violations of religious freedom." the cpc determinations lead to a consultation and negotiations process resulting in a range of actions and sanctions if the offenses are not addressed. based on similar successful provisions in trade law, irfa included a ground-breaking provision that the goal of these negotiations was to secure a "binding agreement" to cease the violations. in such a case, sanctions would be withheld. in a landmark first for human rights, after designating vietnam a cpc, ambassador john hanford (appointed by george w. bush as irf ambassador from 2002-2009) secured a binding agreement under irfa with vietnam. reversing the violations that had led to cpc designation, vietnam issued a decree ordering the cessation of its practice of forced renunciations of faith, released all known religious prisoners, and allowed hundreds of churches it had shut down to re-open. to date this is the only binding agreement secured under irfa, but it demonstrates the irfa policy goal of securing systemic change rather than mere punishment.
international religious freedom act of 1998