It is the right of every individual to regulate his own religious activities; to accept or reject any creed; to adopt any or no form of worship without interference.

"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." —United States Constitution (First Amendment).

"Religion is not in the purview of human government. Religion is essentially distinct from government and exempt from its cognizance. A connection between them is injurious to both." —James Madison.

"Every man who conducts himself as a good citizen, is accountable to God alone for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience." —George Washington.

"Religion flourishes in greater purity without than with the aid of government." —James Madison.

"Of all the attempts to arrogate unjust dominion, none is so pernicious as the efforts of tyrannical men to rule over the human conscience. Religion is exclusively an affair between man and his God If there be any subject upon which the interference of human power is more forbidden than on all others, it is on religion." —William Gaston, U.S. Jurist and Congressman.

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence the act of the whole American people, which declares that the legislature should make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state." —Thomas Jefferson.

"Religion is ever a matter between God and the individual; the imposing of religious tests has been the greatest engine of tyranny in the world."— Isaac Backus, 18th Century Baptist Minister.

"Nothing can be conceived more abhorrent to the true spirit of religion, than the hypocritical pretensions of kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, to uphold her holy cause by their unholy violence." —William Gaston, U.S. Jurist and Congressman.

"Secular power has proved a satanic sift to the church, and ecclesiastical power has proved an engine of tyranny in the hands of the state." —Philip Schaff, Theologian and Historian.

"Freedom in civil affairs, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech are valued possessions; but religious freedom is more sacred than all these, because it is first in the estimation of humanity, and because it is the chief protection and guarantee of all other freedom." —James M. King.

"Condenm no man for not thinking as you think.... If you cannot reason nor persuade a man into the truth, never attempt to force a man into it. If love will not compel him to come, leave him to God, the judge of all." —John Wesley.

"Government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us." —Ronald Reagan, Republican National Convention, July 17, 1980.