The Religious Reich

"I am really mortified to be told, in the United States of America, a fact like this can become a subject of inquiry, a criminal inquiry too, as an offense against religion; that a question about the sale of a book can be carried before the civil magistrate. Is this then our freedom of religion? And are we to have a censor whose imprimatur shall say what books may be sold and what we may buy? And who is thus to dogmatize religious opinions for our citizens? Whose foot is to be measure to which ours are all to be cut or stretched? Is a priest to be our inquisitor, or shall a layman simple as ourselves, set up his reason as the rule for what we are to read, and what we must believe? It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason. If M. de Becourt's book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose." Thomas Jefferson