Nathan A. Adams IV is a Partner in our
Tallahassee office .
Timely Topics
The legitimacy of political speech from the pulpit is much
debated. Some contend that religious institutions should be silent,
because of separation of church and state or the inaccessibility of
divine inspiration to nonbelievers. But religious speech has been
central to American politics from the beginning. As one example,
consider the sermon of John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister
and president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). About one
month before his election to the Continental Congress in June 1776,
Witherspoon preached and published in Philadelphia The Dominion
of Providence Over the Passions of Men. It concluded as
follows:
