American Minute with Bill Federer
When Baptists in Virginia had their church services disrupted, James Madison introduced a Bill in the Virginia Legislature, October 31, 1785, for Punishing Disturbers of Religious Worship, which passed in 1789:
“If any person shall of purpose, maliciously, or contemptuously, disquiet or disturb any congregation assembled in any church …
he may be put under restraint during religious worship, by any Justice present … and … shall commit him to prison, there to remain till the next court to be held … and upon conviction … shall be further punished by imprisonment.”
This tradition dated back to America’s founding.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Cambridge Platform, 1648:
“7. … venting corrupt and pernicious opinions … open contempt of the word preached, prophanation of the Lord’s day, disturbing the peaceable administration and exercise of the worship and holy things of God, and the like, are to be restrained and punished by civil authority.”
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