Editing Roger Williams (section)

==Separation of church and state==

Williams was a staunch advocate of the [[separation of church and state]]. He was convinced that civil government had no basis for meddling in matters of religious belief. He declared that the state should concern itself only with matters of civil order, not with religious belief, and he rejected any attempt by civil authorities to enforce the "first Table" of the [[Ten Commandments]], those commandments that deal with an individual's relationship with and belief in God. Williams believed that the state must confine itself to the commandments dealing with the relations between people: murder, theft, adultery, lying, honoring parents, etc.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hall|title=Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty|publisher=University of Illinois Press|url=https://archive.org/details/separatingchurch00hall|url-access=registration|year=1998|page=[https://archive.org/details/separatingchurch00hall/page/77 77]}}</ref> He wrote of a "hedge or wall of Separation between the Garden of the Church and the Wilderness of the world." [[Thomas Jefferson]] later used the metaphor in his 1801 ''[[Baptists in the history of separation of church and state#American Baptists|Letter to Danbury Baptists]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280/ |title=God, Government and Roger Williams' Big Idea |last=Barry |first=John M. |date=January 2012 |website=Smithsonian |language=en |access-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215221553/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280/ |archive-date=15 December 2017 |url-status=live  }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2009/05/14/shifting-boundaries4/ |title=''Everson'' and the Wall of Separation |date=14 May 2009 |work=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |publisher=Pew Research Center |language=en-US |access-date=13 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171214071354/http://www.pewforum.org/2009/05/14/shifting-boundaries4/ |archive-date=14 December 2017 |url-status=live  }}</ref>

Williams considered the state's sponsorship of religious beliefs or practice to be "forced worship", declaring "Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.providenceri.com/archives/roger-williams-champion-of-religious | author = Lemons, Stanley | title = Roger Williams Champion of Religious Liberty | publisher = Providence, RI City Archives. | access-date = 28 May 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140529052810/http://www.providenceri.com/archives/roger-williams-champion-of-religious | archive-date = 29 May 2014 | url-status = live | df = dmy-all }}</ref> He also believed [[Constantine the Great]] to be a worse enemy to Christianity than [[Nero]] because the subsequent state involvement in religious matters corrupted Christianity and led to the death of the first Christian church and the first Christian communities. He described laws concerning an individual's religious beliefs as "rape of the soul" and spoke of the "oceans of blood" shed as a result of trying to command conformity.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chana B. Cox|title=Liberty: God's Gift to Humanity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2r2UBGf1nT4C&pg=PA26|year=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|page=26|isbn=9780739114421|access-date=13 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227064015/https://books.google.com/books?id=2r2UBGf1nT4C&pg=PA26|archive-date=27 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The moral principles in the Scriptures ought to guide civil magistrates, he believed, but he observed that well-ordered, just, and civil governments existed even where Christianity was not present. Thus, all governments had to maintain civil order and justice, but Williams decided that none had a warrant to promote or repress any religious views. Most of his contemporaries criticized his ideas as a prescription for chaos and anarchy, and the vast majority believed that each nation must have its national church and could require that dissenters conform.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}}