It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God: to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.
The safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God.
-John Adams, Proclamation for a day of prayer, 1797
The Free Speech Fairness Act is needed to protect the constitutional freedoms of pastors and churches. They should have the same protection as the rest of us.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18, 1948
Rulers ought to employ a page to repeat to them every morning: “See that you do not torment anyone on account of his religious opinions, and that you do not extend the power of the sword to touch the conscience.”
-Joseph Glanville, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, 1661
If liberty is to be saved, it will not be by the doubters, the men of science, or the materialists; it will be by religious conviction, by the faith of individuals, who believe that God wills man to be free but also pure.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, 1825
Unless the city of God pre-exists in heaven it cannot descend to earth. Therefore those who deny that Divine city cannot build on earth the city of their dreams.