[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 2 (Monday, January 15, 1996)]
[Pages 54-55]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6862--Religious Freedom Day, 1996

January 12, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    On this day over 200 years ago, Virginia's General Assembly passed a 
law that created the first legal protection for religious freedom in 
this country. Introducing his bill to the Virginia Assembly, Thomas 
Jefferson stated that he was not creating a new right confined simply to 
the State of Virginia or to the United States, but rather declared 
religious liberty to be one of the ``natural rights of mankind'' that 
should be shared by all people. Jefferson's language was shepherded 
through the legislature by James Madison, who later used it as a model 
for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
    Americans have long benefited from our founders' wisdom, and the 
Constitution's twin pillars of religious liberty--its protection of the 
free exercise of religion and its ban on the establishment of religion 
by the Government--have allowed an enormous diversity of spiritual 
beliefs to thrive throughout our country. Today, more than 250,000 
churches, synagogues, mosques, meeting houses, and other places of 
worship serve to bring citizens together, strengthening families and 
helping communities to keep their faith traditions alive. We must 
continue to ensure full protection for religious liberty and help people 
of different faiths to find common ground.
    Our Nation's profound commitment to religious freedom reminds us 
that many people around the world lack the safeguard of law to protect 
them from prejudice and persecution. We deplore the religious 
intolerance that too often tears neighbor from neighbor, and we must 
remain an international advocate for the ideal of human brotherhood and 
sisterhood and for the basic rights that sustain human dignity and 
personal freedom. Let us pledge our support to all who struggle against 
religious oppression and rededicate ourselves to fostering peace among 
people with divergent beliefs so that what Americans experience as a 
``natural right'' may be enjoyed by individuals and societies 
everywhere.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 
16, 1996, as Religious Freedom Day. I call upon the people of the United 
States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and 
programs, and I urge all Americans to reaffirm their devotion to the 
fundamental principles of religious freedom and religious tolerance.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of 
January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twentieth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 17, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January 
18.

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