> For
> > example, in Virginia, the Episcopal
> > church was the official state church.
> > That remained the case, until Jefferson
> > and Madison successfully led a campaign,
> > strongly supported by the Baptists, to
> > disestablish it.
>
I believe your terminology is slightly anachronistic. It was understood to be the Church of England, not the Episcopal Church, although I'm not sure when its name changed in relation to its 1786 disestablishment. Whatever motivations Jefferson, Madison, and the Baptists had, their campaign succeeded because of prevailing anti-English sentiment, not deism or secularism.
On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 11:51 AM, Jeffrey Fisher <jeff.jfisher at gmail.com>wrote:
Yes. Baptists used to get beat up by Episcopalians, as I hear it told. It's
> also the Baptists fighting with the Congregationalists in Mass.
>
A time-honored tradition, which I am assured continues in the Country Club of Virginia, St. Christopher's School, and the other surviving institutions of our planter aristocracy.
> As I understand it, Massachusetts was the last holdout, abandoning the
> setup
> in 1833, but I admit I don't know dets, and looking at teh wikipediaz
> didn't
> help. It sounds like others here might know more.
>
You were looking at the wrong parts of that Wikipedia article. Go here and scan down to the table:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_religion#Protestant_colonies
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."