Originally posted on RaisingKaine.com
As people around the world hear about Rep. Virgil Goode’s narrow-minded comments against Muslims, many of them will assume that in this, he is representing the people and state of Virginia. So let us set the record straight: Goode’s stance is a complete repudiation of our state’s Jeffersonian tradition of religious tolerance.
In his "Notes on Virginia" (1784), Thomas Jefferson wrote: "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." (Got that, Virgil?)
In 1779, Jefferson introduced a "Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom" to the Virginia state legislature, which states:
We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, or shall suffer otherwise on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities.
To be sure, it took Jefferson (and James Madison) years to get this enacted, but they finally did so in 1784. At the time, Jefferson was serving as Ambassador to France, and was so thrilled to hear about the passage of this law that he translated it into French and Italian and had it distributed across Europe at his own expense. As he said then: "It is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions."
When he wrote the epitaph for his own tombstone, he mentioned only three accomplishments for which he wanted to be remembered: the Declaration of Independence, the University of Virginia – and the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom.
So let us remember Jefferson for this milestone and take pride that Virginia played such a pivotal role in spreading the notion of religious tolerance across the world. And let us not allow Virgil Goode or any of his Republican apologists to tarnish this great Virginia tradition.
[Note: along similar lines, see David Sewell's diary "George Washington vs. Virgil Goode"]: http://www.dailykos.com/...