维吉尼亚宗教自由法令
A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia

(American Memory Collection, Library of Congress)

　

我们维吉尼亚全州代表大会现颁布以下法令，即任何人不得被强迫参加或支援任何宗教礼拜、宗教场所或传道职位，任何人不得因其宗教见解或信仰不同而在肉体或财産上受到强制、约束、骚扰、负担或其它损害。

托马斯．杰斐逊满腔热情地忠于自由思想的原则。爲了达到这个目的，他不断提倡言论自由、新闻自由及宗教和教育自由。像和同辈的其它有教养的人一样，他很清楚人类爲宗教偏见所付出的代价，多少世纪以来，宗教偏见一直是造成仇视和流血的原因。1779年，杰斐逊在维吉尼亚议会提出以下这个划时代的法令，但一直到1786年这个法令才被正或通过。法令中对宗教自由的保证即是后来《美国宪法第一修正案》的前驱，该修正案禁止国会建立宗教或干预宗教的自由。

杰斐逊在爲自己墓碑所写的墓志铭中写道：“这里埋着托马斯．杰斐逊，《美国独立宣言》的作者，维吉尼亚宗教自由法规的制定者和维吉尼亚大学之父。”

一、谁都知道、人们的见解和信仰并不取决于他们的意志，而是无意识地顺应别人向他们提供的证据；万能的上帝已经把人的思想创造成自由的。而且通过把思想造成完全不受约束的东西表明他的最高旨意，即思想必须保持自由；任何企图以人世间的刑罚或压迫，或以行政法规限制来影响思想的作法，其结果只能是造成虚僞和卑鄙的习性，背离我们宗教的神圣创始者的旨意。他是躯体和精神的主宰。他无所不能，但他并不强行向我们的躯体和精神宣扬他的旨意，而是以其对理性本身的影响来提高它；有些在世间的和教会中的立法者和统治者，他们本身不过是常犯错误和没有圣感的人，而竟然对上帝不敬。以爲他们有权主宰其它人的信仰，他们把自己的意见和想法说成是唯一永无错误的真理，并强加 于世人，自古以来，这种人在世界上绝大多数地方所建立和所维持的只是虚假的宗教而已；强迫一个人捐钱，用以党传他所不相信并且厌恶的见解，是罪恶和专横的行爲；即便强迫一个人支持他所属教派中的这位或那位牧师，也是在剥夺这个人的自由，使他不能心情舒畅地把钱捐给他所想捐的某一牧师，因爲他认爲这位牧师的道德可作爲他的典范，而且他觉得这位牧师最有说服人从善的力量。同时这也剥夺了牧师们应从世间得到的报酬，而这些由于他们个人的行爲受到尊敬而获得的报酬，正足以鼓励他们认真地和孜孜不倦地向世人传教；我们的公民权并不取决于我们的宗教见解，正如它不取决于我们在物理学或几何学上的见解一样。因此，如果因一个人不声明皈依或放弃这个或那个宗教见解，就硬说他没能力担任受到信任或享有薪俸的职务，且以此宣布这个人不值得大衆信赖，那就是极不慎重地剥夺了他的特权和利益，而对于这些特权和利益．他和他的同胞一样享有天赋的权利；给那些表面广宣称皈依某一宗教的人贿以独占世间荣誉和报酬的权利，同样也是对那种宗教所宣扬的教义的腐蚀；这些无法抵制诱惑的入固然都是罪人，可是那些在这些人的道路上安置诱饵的入也不能算是清白无辜的；人的思想见解既不是文官政府可以指导的，也不属其管辖范围；如果我们容忍政府官员把权力伸张到思想见解的领域，任他们假定某些宗教的教义有坏倾向而限制人们皈依和传播它们，那将是一个非常危险的错误做法，这会马上断送一切宗教自由，因爲在判断这些宗教的倾向时，当然是由这个官员作主，他会拿他个人的见解作爲判断的准绳，对于别人的见解，只看其是否和他自己的见解一致，或者是否能容忍他的见解，而予以赞许或斥责；当宗教教义突然转化爲公然反对和平和正常秩序的行爲时，政府官员爲了政府的正当目的，会有足够时间进行干预的；最后，真理是伟大的。只要听其自然，它一定会占上风的，因爲真理是谬误的适当而有力的对手，在真理与谬误的冲突中，真理是无所畏惧的，它只怕人类加以干涉，解除其天赋的武器──自由引证和自由辩论。一切谬误，到了大家可以自由反驳的时候，就不危险了。

二、我们维吉尼亚全州代表大会现颁布以下法令，即任何人不得被强迫参加或支援任何宗教礼拜、宗教场所或传道职位，任何人不得由于其宗教见解和信仰不同，而在肉体或财産上受到强制、约束、骚扰、负担或其它损害；任何人都应该有自由宣布他信仰某一宗教，并通过辩论来维护他在宗教问题上的见解，而且也绝不能因此而削弱、扩大或影响其公民权利。

三、虽然我们知道，这个代表大会，只是人民爲了立法上的一般目的而选举産生的，我们无权限制今后代表大会産生的法令，因爲今后的代表大会具有和我们同样的权力。因此，宣布这项法令是不可推翻的，将不具有任何法律上的效力；但我们还是有自由声明，而且必须声明，我们在这里所主张的权利，都是人类的天赋权利。如果今后通过的任何法令，要把目前这个法令取消或缩小其实施范围，那麽这样的法令将是对天赋权利的侵犯。

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.