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Speaking was the Reverend Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Mr. Joe Loconte, the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society at the Heritage Foundation. Dr. David Cain, Distinguished Professor of Religion at UMW moderated this panel discussion.

Barry W. Lynn, a long-time activist in the civil liberties field, has been the Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State since 1992. Prior to this, he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to debate and discuss First Amendment issues, including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, The Today Show, Nightline, CNN’s Crossfire, The Phil Donahue Show, Good Morning America and national nightly news programs with NBC, ABC and CBS. He is the author of The Right to Religious Liberty and writes frequently on First Amendment issues, appearing in USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

A member of the Washington, D.C. and U. S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He is an ordained minister with a theology degree from Boston University.

Joseph Loconte works at the Heritage Foundation examining the role of religious belief in strengthening democracy and reforming civil society. He is especially interested in new models for church-state partnerships, efforts to protect religious liberty, and the relationship of Islam to democracy. Mr. Loconte previously served as deputy editor of Policy Review.

Since 1996, Mr. Loconte has served as a regular commentator on religion and culture for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He also has appeared on CBS Morning News, Fox News, and PBS’ Flashpoints. His articles have appeared in leading magazines and newspapers, including The Weekly Standard, National Review, The American Enterprise, Christianity Today, The Journal of Church and State, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. He authored Seducing the Samaritan: How Government Contracts Are Reshaping Social Services, which documents the destructive impact of government funding on private charities.

Mr. Loconte earned his bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana and has a master’s degree in Christian History and Theology from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.

It was in Fredericksburg in January of 1777 that Thomas Jefferson, working with a committee to revise the laws of Virginia, began to draft an act "for establishing religious freedom." This bill, establishing the principal that "no man shall suffer on account of his religious opinions or beliefs" took nine long years to be enacted into law by the Virginia General Assembly. In three more years it would become the basis of the first Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom is an extraordinary document, legally protecting the freedom of individual beliefs in this country and recognizing free and independent thinking among its citizens.

Sponsored by UMW’s Campus Academic Resources Committee, UMW’s Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religion and the Fredericksburg Council for the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.