Bill Lee: “I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the fascinating men and women of America's founding generation. I want…”

“I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the fascinating men and women of America's founding generation. I want to share with you one of their stories. Jonas Phillips was a penniless Jewish immigrant to America. He was an indentured servant, a hard-working businessman, and an American patriot who served in the Philadelphia militia during the Revolutionary War. During the British occupation of New York City, he sneaked messages past the censors by writing notes in Yiddish, understanding that his adversaries wouldn't be able to understand or decipher it easily. Years later, Phillips addressed a letter to George Washington and to other delegates at the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia. He urged the delegates not to include a religious test in the Constitution as any kind of requirement for service for the Federal Government because no man, he wrote, should be ``deprived or abridged of any civil right, as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiments.'' Jonas Phillips wrote this letter for a reason. He wrote this because Pennsylvania, the State where he lived, required officials to swear that the New Testament was inspired by God. As a faithful Jewish person, Jonas Phillips could not do that. ``By the above law,'' he wrote, ``a Jew is deprived of holding any public office or place of government.'' Thankfully, Jonas Phillips' letter--Jonas Phillips' prayer-- ultimately would be answered.…”