Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Farris:
By August 1775, the first shots of the war for American independence had been fired and Virginia was in the thick of the colonies’ mobilization efforts against the British. The Baptists were “to a man” in favor of American independence and saw in the war an opportunity to achieve the religious liberty they had always desired. With this in mind, representatives of Baptist churches in the state joined together in a central location on the second Saturday of the month. Their purpose in meeting was to coordinate efforts for religious liberty.

As a first step, the delegates at the meeting wrote a petition to the Third Virginia Convention meeting in Richmond.

Two days after the petition was presented, on Wednesday, August 16, 1775, Patrick Henry recorded the following resolution of the Third Virginia Convention:

Resolved that it be an instruction to the commanding officers of the regiments or troops to be raised to permit dissenting clergymen to celebrate divine worship and to preach to the soldiers or exhort from time to time as the various operations of the military service may admit for the ease of such scrupulous consciences, as may not choose to attend divine worship as celebrated by the chaplain.

For the first time in Virginia history, the Baptists had been recognized favorably by a governing body and promised the free exercise of religion while they served in the cause of American freedom.

I’m Mike Farris.