Summary Of The Philadelphia Synagogue

The overall theme that Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and the leaders of the Philadelphia Synagogue were using to argue that religious diversity should be accepted is that every man has civil rights that would be impeded by combination of church and state. To expand on this, Thomas Jefferson ecentually explains that each man has the right to choosing his own religion because is protected under civil rights because it is unlawful for one man to hold others accountable for his beliefs. (151) New England had this ideology because they wanted to separate themselves from the ideologies of Church of England. James Madison explains how combining church and state would make them exactly like the Church of England by stating “such a step would only return the nation to the tyrannical rulers”, the exact system they were trying to separate themselves from (152).
He even goes as far to say that all in all the state would not benefit from the combination but religion would thus there is no practical need for the merging of the two. He supports this claim by stating that the combination infringes of keeping a limited government and promotes conformity. It also limits the citizens who would want to join New England which limits a diverse society. (152-54) All of these men had the common belief that the opinions of one man should not dictate the beliefs of another because it infringes on the natural rights of every free man. This is the key reason they argues for the separation of church and