PROVO - The Bible was instrumental in forming American law in colonial days and continues to influence the judicial system today, Brigham Young University law professor John W. Welch said at a recent lecture to open a new Library of Congress exhibit at the school.
"Religion and the Founding of the American Republic" has just opened at the Harold B. Lee Library on campus as part of a national tour.
The exhibit begins with the persecution of Jesuit priests and other early Christian faithful and ends with the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, founder and first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The Bible is not used as much but is woven into the
fabric of law today," Welch said.
The exhibit will be open Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. through
March 15. Admission is free.
Guest speaker Chief Justice Richard C. Howe of the Utah Supreme Court also noted the heavy influence of religion in the founding of the republic. An admitted American history buff, Howe said that while some early immigrants came to America for economic reasons, more came for religious freedom.
Ironically, he said, the Puritans, who had suffered under the hands of European political leaders, denied freedom of religious expression to immigrants who disagreed with them. For example, he said, they drove out religious leader Roger Williams who asserted that forced religion "stinks."
Williams founded Rhode Island, and among the early settlers to that region were Jews from Brazil who came to America in 1654 to escape persecution, Howe said.
Meanwhile, the Quakers founded Pennsylvania, while Catholics "flocked to Maryland," he said. The exception was Virginia, which was settled by businessmen looking for profit.
"Religion has played a significant role in the founding of America, not only in the years that followed (the writing of the Constitution) but does so today," Howe said.
The first written and published colonial law was printed in 1643, Welch said, and like other examples of early laws, it cited biblical references. Many of the early laws dealing with capital punishment were based on passages from the Old Testament books of Exodus and Leviticus. From those references came death penalty requirements for such crimes as witchcraft, blasphemy, murder, perjury, arson or "smiting a parent," he said.
By 1699 capital laws began to drop out.
"If you want to see what a community values most," he said, "look to its use of capital punishment."
About 11 percent of the laws throughout early New England were specifically tied to the Bible, while numerous others had indirect links, Welch said.
"The Bible . . . was the unifying force," he said.
The early laws had more to do with duties and social justice rather than individual rights, he said.
Deputy university librarian Randy J. Olsen, noting that heavy security had precluded using giant scissors for a traditional ribbon cutting, instead used the sharp rap of a gavel to formally declare the exhibit open.