Jump to content

Religious Freedom Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Religious Freedom Act was an 1811 law passed by the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.[1] It repudiated a decision made by Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons in the case of Barnes v. The First Parish in Falmouth.[1] The law ensured that citizens could use their tax dollars to support the church of their choice, not just the one officially sponsored by their community.[2]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Wright 1988, p. 37.
  2. ^ Neem 2004, p. 398.

Works cited

[edit]
  • Wright, Conrad (1988). "The Dedham Case Revisited". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 3. 100. Massachusetts Historical Society: 15–39. JSTOR 25080991.
  • Neem, Johann N. (2004). "The Elusive Common Good: Religion and Civil Society in Massachusetts, 1780-1833". Journal of the Early Republic. 24 (3). Society for Historians of the Early American Republic: 381–417. JSTOR 4141439.