Religion was adamantly believed to be vital to the consciousness and success of our government

In the beginning, all the Shenandoah Valley was considered part of Orange County, Virginia. In 1738, Virginia’s General Assembly created two new counties from the western area of Orange County: Frederick County in the northwest and Augusta County in the southwest were named after the Prince and Princess of Wales respectively.

The availability of land grants brought in many religious families, who were often given 50-acre plots through the sponsorship of fellow-religious grant purchasers and speculators. As a result, the Valley became home to some of the oldest Presbyterian, Quaker, Lutheran and Anglican churches west of the Blue Ridge.

We should remember that by law, colonial Virginians were members of the Anglican Church. Three decades before the American Revolution, immigrants – Quakers, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists and Lutherans brought religious diversity to the colony. Virginia officials chose to tolerate (in the legal sense) most non-Anglican Protestants. Legislation in accordance with the English Toleration Act of 1689 granted limited religious expression and practice to persons who did not accept the religious doctrines and ritual of the Church of England. Passage of the Toleration Act by the English Parliament gave new rights to religious dissenters, allowing them to register their meeting houses and license their ministers to preach.

Freedom of religion, and the unique system of institutional religion it fostered, were integral parts of the process of becoming Americans. As Virginians responded to the appeal of evangelical faith and the tolerant rationalism of the Enlightenment, they evolved away from the idea of a single authoritarian church protected by the state.

The Founding Fathers feared a state denominational religion not a state doctrinal religion! John Quincy Adams said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was, it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” Our new nation wanted to keep the state out of the church’s business, not keep the church out of the state’s business. Religion was adamantly believed to be vital to the consciousness and success of our government.

In 1784, one year after the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War, Virginia’s General Assembly voted to disestablish the Virginia Anglican Church.

Mark P. Gunderman
Stephens City, Virginia