Did Thomas Jefferson Say Religious Institutions 'Undermine All Our Civil Rights'?

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The full quote reads: “Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights.” ❌ No, Thomas Jefferson wasn't its original author.

of Jefferson quotes that was once hosted by the website for the University of Virginia. The page was archived in the year 1999 by the Wayback Machine on Archive.org. It contained the same quote in its introduction, which was credited at the bottom of the website to Coates.Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person’s life, freedom of religion affects every individual.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.Jefferson did once write something similar to the quote in the memes that mentioned both civil rights and religion.

 

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Jefferson didn't say it, but that doesn't make it any less true.

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