維吉尼亞宗教自由法令
A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia

(American Memory Collection, Library of Congress)

　

我們維吉尼亞全州代表大會現頒佈以下法令，即任何人不得被強迫參加或支援任何宗教禮拜、宗教場所或傳道職位，任何人不得因其宗教見解或信仰不同而在肉體或財產上受到強制、約束、騷擾、負擔或其他損害。

托馬斯‧傑斐遜滿腔熱情地忠於自由思想的原則。為了達到這個目的，他不斷提倡言論自由、新聞自由及宗教和教育自由。像和同輩的其他有教養的人一樣，他很清楚人類為宗教偏見所付出的代價，多少世紀以來，宗教偏見一直是造成仇視和流血的原因。1779年，傑斐遜在維吉尼亞議會提出以下這個劃時代的法令，但一直到1786年這個法令才被正或通過。法令中對宗教自由的保證即是後來《美國憲法第一修正案》的前驅，該修正案禁止國會建立宗教或干預宗教的自由。

傑斐遜在為自己墓碑所寫的墓誌銘中寫道：「這裏埋著托馬斯‧傑斐遜，《美國獨立宣言》的作者，維吉尼亞宗教自由法規的制定者和維吉尼亞大學之父。」

一、誰都知道、人們的見解和信仰並不取決於他們的意志，而是無意識地順應別人向他們提供的證據；萬能的上帝已經把人的思想創造成自由的。而且通過把思想造成完全不受約束的東西表明他的最高旨意，即思想必須保持自由；任何企圖以人世間的刑罰或壓迫，或以行政法規限制來影響思想的作法，其結果只能是造成虛偽和卑鄙的習性，背離我們宗教的神聖創始者的旨意。他是軀體和精神的主宰。他無所不能，但他並不強行向我們的軀體和精神宣揚他的旨意，而是以其對理性本身的影響來提高它；有些在世間的和教會中的立法者和統治者，他們本身不過是常犯錯誤和沒有聖感的人，而竟然對上帝不敬。以為他們有權主宰其他人的信仰，他們把自己的意見和想法說成是唯一永無錯誤的真理，並強加 於世人，自古以來，這種人在世界上絕大多數地方所建立和所維持的只是虛假的宗教而已；強迫一個人捐錢，用以黨傳他所不相信並且厭惡的見解，是罪惡和專橫的行為；即便強迫一個人支援他所屬教派中的這位或那位牧師，也是在剝奪這個人的自由，使他不能心情舒暢地把錢捐給他所想捐的某一牧師，因為他認為這位牧師的道德可作為他的典範，而且他覺得這位牧師最有說服人從善的力量。同時這也剝奪了牧師們應從世間得到的報酬，而這些由於他們個人的行為受到尊敬而獲得的報酬，正足以鼓勵他們認真地和孜孜不倦地向世人傳教；我們的公民權並不取決於我們的宗教見解，正如它不取決於我們在物理學或幾何學上的見解一樣。因此，如果因一個人不聲明皈依或放棄這個或那個宗教見解，就硬說他沒能力擔任受到信任或享有薪俸的職務，且以此宣佈這個人不值得大眾信賴，那就是極不慎重地剝奪了他的特權和利益，而對於這些特權和利益．他和他的同胞一樣享有天賦的權利；給那些表面廣宣稱皈依某一宗教的人賄以獨佔世間榮譽和報酬的權利，同樣也是對那種宗教所宣揚的教義的腐蝕；這些無法抵制誘惑的入固然都是罪人，可是那些在這些人的道路上安置誘餌的入也不能算是清白無辜的；人的思想見解既不是文官政府可以指導的，也不屬其管轄範圍；如果我們容忍政府官員把權力伸張到思想見解的領域，任他們假定某些宗教的教義有壞傾向而限制人們皈依和傳播它們，那將是一個非常危險的錯誤做法，這會馬上斷送一切宗教自由，因為在判斷這些宗教的傾向時，當然是由這個官員作主，他會拿他個人的見解作為判斷的準繩，對於別人的見解，只看其是否和他自己的見解一致，或者是否能容忍他的見解，而予以讚許或斥責；當宗教教義突然轉化為公然反對和平和正常秩序的行為時，政府官員為了政府的正當目的，會有足夠時間進行干預的；最後，真理是偉大的。只要聽其自然，它一定會佔上風的，因為真理是謬誤的適當而有力的對手，在真理與謬誤的衝突中，真理是無所畏懼的，它只怕人類加以干涉，解除其天賦的武器──自由引證和自由辯論。一切謬誤，到了大家可以自由反駁的時候，就不危險了。

二、我們維吉尼亞全州代表大會現頒佈以下法令，即任何人不得被強迫參加或支援任何宗教禮拜、宗教場所或傳道職位，任何人不得由於其宗教見解和信仰不同，而在肉體或財產上受到強制、約束、騷擾、負擔或其他損害；任何人都應該有自由宣佈他信仰某一宗教，並通過辯論來維護他在宗教問題上的見解，而且也絕不能因此而削弱、擴大或影響其公民權利。

三、雖然我們知道，這個代表大會，只是人民為了立法上的一般目的而選舉產生的，我們無權限制今後代表大會產生的法令，因為今後的代表大會具有和我們同樣的權力。因此，宣佈這項法令是不可推翻的，將不具有任何法律上的效力；但我們還是有自由聲明，而且必須聲明，我們在這裏所主張的權利，都是人類的天賦權利。如果今後通過的任何法令，要把目前這個法令取消或縮小其實施範圍，那麼這樣的法令將是對天賦權利的侵犯。

Thomas Jefferson
A Bill for Establishing Religions Freedom in Virginia

SECTION 1. Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious presumption of legislature and ruler, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is Withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry; and therefore the proscribing any citizen as un worthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust or emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injudiciously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminals who do  not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square -with or suffer from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that the truth is great and will prevail if left to herself; that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

    SECTION II. 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 otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or beliefs; 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.

     SECTION III. And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people for their ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operations, such act will be an infringement of natural right.