Written by Pastor Zach Dotson
The Story of Virginia is the story of the United States of America.
In 1607, Virginia was founded when a group of settlers landed and established Jamestown; it was the first of the original 13 Colonies that formed the fledgling United States after the Revolution. Virginia has been the birthplace of 8 Presidents, more than any other U.S. state, earning it the nickname “The Mother of Presidents”. Land carved out of Virginia eventually became the States of Kentucky, Ohio, and, later, more painfully, West Virginia.
Virginia was where the British were defeated at Yorktown, and Cornwallis surrendered to Washington, the last major battle of the American Revolution. The “Old Dominion” saw more battles in the War Between the States than any other state. Virginia was home to George Washington, James Maddison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the infamous Marine Corps General Chesty Puller, to name a few prominent Virginians. I suppose, as the author of the article, I should declare myself to be a son of Virginia, whose ancestors landed at Jamestown in 1607.
Just yesterday in Virginia, it was election day. All the virtue of the past, all her former glory, was eclipsed by the debased political cycle and, in Virginia’s case, the utterly debased Constitutional Amendments in referendum form on the ballot. There were three specific initiatives:
The Constitutional Right to Abortion.
The legalising of Same-Sex Marriage (though technically already legal by Supreme Court fiat, they wanted to make it official by removing the amendment prohibiting it from the state constitution).
Allowing convicted felons the vote.
These three measures are progressive goals and achievements—the cause d’jour of Virginia’s new class of political leaders. And in passing them we see the chickens of Virginia’s past coming home to roost—even 240 years later. Virginia is a sad tale of a state forsaking her Godly heritage in exchange for the pottage of the Enlightenment.
It all began in 1607 at Virginia’s founding. The Virginia Colony’s first chaplain, Rev. Robert Hunt, and the initial settlers landed at Cape Henry, Virginia. They covenanted before God to dedicate Virginia to the Glory of God, stating:
“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World. May all who see this Cross remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and in this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.”
They also erected a cross at the site, and the first Protestant Sermon was preached in what would become the United States.
From this Covenant, Virginia was founded with a distinctly Christian identity. Virginia was a Christian colony. Her roots were tied to the Christian heritage of mother England. Virginia was a Christian Commonwealth, and this identity would persist until late in the next century.
Now, let us go from 1607 to the year 1777.
In 1777, one year after the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson drafted what would become the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Thomas Jefferson was no friend of established Christianity, or Christianity at all, and he embraced Enlightenment ideas. Later in his life, then—President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association that he considered it vital that “a wall of separation between church and State” be erected.
Further, Jefferson in the same letter stated that the government should permit religious freedom to “restore to man all his natural rights”—he doesn’t see that true “natural rights” oblige man to worship God as his creator and Lord. He has stripped the concept of Natural Rights, or what Christian theologians call “Natural Law” or God’s law. Here Jefferson proudly showed his true Enlightenment colours, but back to Jefferson’s attempt at legislating in the Enlightenment.
In 1786, Jefferson’s draft of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom finally came before the legislature. Though it was Thomas Jefferson’s brainchild, it was largely forgotten until Patrick Henry wanted the State to support clergy from denominations other than the Anglican Church — Virginia’s established church was the Anglican Church.
This led James Madison to introduce Jefferson’s legislation to counter Henry, and Madison skillfully managed to pass it. Other states at this point had some level of religious freedom, but their laws essentially allowed different Christian denominations to function in society and government.
In contrast, Virginia went all the way—it allowed for the open practice of any faith, and further, no restrictions on elected officials’ religious beliefs, so that infidels and atheists could hold public office. The Virginia Legislature, with one law, separated Church and State and broke the bond between Christ and Commonwealth, made all the way back in 1607. This statute later inspired the US Constitution’s First Amendment and became a primary source of the ubiquitous Western idea of Separation of Church and State.
Jefferson considered the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom one of his crowning achievements, along with the Declaration of Independence. He was proud of what he accomplished, furthering Enlightenment autonomy against Christendom and the godly heritage of his forefathers in Virginia.
Fast forward to today, the “Right to Abortion” was just enshrined in Virginia’s Constitution. The right to worship false gods, the public acceptance of idolatry, and allowing men of profane and unbelieving religious persuasions or no persuasion at all to hold public office have been allowed for 240 years.
Perhaps loath to admit it, but Thomas Jefferson, the Enlightenment deist, wed Virginia to liberal Enlightenment and divorced her from her Christian founding. The disestablishment of Christianity and the Separation of Church and state have led to the ungodly, degenerate, and debauched state the Commonwealth of Virginia is in now.
Psalm 33:12 states, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”. The Commonwealth of Virginia could have claimed this at her founding, but Enlightenment ideas took over. Virginia ran off with her lover, the Enlightenment, and when you run off with the Enlightenment, you end with constitutionally enshrined child sacrifice.
Let Virginia be a warning to the whole West: the Disestablishment of the Christian Religion and allowing Religious Freedom is sowing to the wind, and now Virginia will reap the whirlwind (Hosea 8:7).
If only Virginia could declare with Godly zeal “Sic Semper Tyrannis” to the Enlightenment and all the supposed progress it wrought!