Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: TRAVEL (07/08/21)
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TITLE: A HISTORY TOUR TO VIRGINIA | Previous Challenge Entry
By Janice Aylor
07/15/21 -
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Before America won her freedom from British rule, the Anglican Church was the State Church in all the American colonies. For this reason, the Anglican Church was supported by the colonists’ taxes. Churches of different persuasions were sometimes attacked by the State run church, resulting in persecution and discouragement in the hearts of the dissenting leaders as well as those who believed and followed their beliefs and doctrines.
Mr. Weatherford was confined to prison for about five months, during which time he proclaimed the love of the Lord to those listening outside his prison windows. On several occasions, there were those who heckled the speaker and verbally attacked him through the open windows while he preached. On several occasions, as he gestured with his hands extended through the windows people of unscrupulous character attacked his hands by wielding knives and severely wounded him. He had many scars on his hands from the attacks visited on him during his prison time. His scars were still visible years later to those who attended his funeral and viewed his body.
Patrick Henry went to the local authorities and obtained Weatherford’s release and paid all his fines. There were many other pastors who were likewise imprisoned, fined, or both for preaching the gospel during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in the American colonies. According to court records, there were more than forty men of God who were incarcerated during this time.
Later on when the Constitution was being debated, Patrick Henry eloquently argued for freedom of religion. Along with James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, Henry argued for the right of all Americans to worship God as they saw fit. They were to have freedom of conscience and the right of each person to go to the church of their choice.
As we all know, the Bill of Rights contains the provision for the freedom of religious expression. It is important that everyone can go to their choice of house of worship any time they choose to do so. If it had not been for Jefferson, Madison, and Henry as well as a few other men, religious freedom may never have been enjoyed in the United States.
I came away with many different ideas from my visit to Virginia. We visited several museums, including the Patrick Henry museum. We also visited a good number of churches as well as one visited often by Frederick Douglass. We also heard lectures by Dr. Ted Alexander. He told us the story of Dr. Weatherford and several other pastors.
Henry H. Mitchell
“John Weatherford Remembered as Unstoppable Dissenting Preacher”
Star-Tribune, May, 1989
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