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Article: A Moment In Time: Jeffersonian separation.(Local)
- Article from:
- The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
- Article date:
- April 9, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Dialog Corporation by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: DAN ROBERTS
I n the 1780s, Virginia led the nation in establishing freedom of religion and helped America accomplish something no society had done before.
From the twilight of the Roman Empire in Europe, Christianity and government were linked.
Church and state were locked in a tight embrace, a minuet of mutual support and powerful distrust, two poles of competing power - secular and spiritual - conjoined out of fear that the whole edifice would collapse.
Except for a few isolated experiments in Europe and America, official government policy had insisted that the unity of state and church was essential to the survival of ...