Who authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom?

• A. Thomas Jefferson
• B. George Mason
• C. Thomas Paine
• D. George Washington

Answer: (A)

Thomas Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, a landmark statement defending freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state in Virginia. He drafted it in 1777, arguing that civil rights protect an individual’s liberty to believe or not believe as they choose, and that government should not compel or financially support religious worship. Although it became law in 1786, its ideas helped shape the First Amendment’s protections of religious liberty in the U.S. Constitution. George Mason contributed to religious liberty through the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which influenced the statute’s spirit, but the written draft of this statute is Jefferson’s. George Washington and Thomas Paine were not its authors.