Young Christian lawyer Patrick Henry saw why a JURY of PEERS is so vital to FREEDOM! It was March 1775 when he rode into a small town of Culpepper, Virginia. He was totally shocked by what he saw! There, in the middle of the town square was a minister tied to a whipping post, his back laid bare and bloody with the bones of his ribs showing. He had been scourged mercilessly like JESUS, with whips laced with metal. Patrick Henry is quoted as saying: "When they stopped beating him, I could see the bones of his rib cage. I turned to someone and asked what the man had done to deserve such a beating as this." SCOURGED FOR NOT TAKING A LICENSE! The reply given him was that the man being scourged was a minister who refused to take a license. He was one of twelve who were locked in jail because they refused to take a license. A license often becomes an arbitrary control by government that makes a crime out of what ordinarily would not be a crime. IT TURNS A RIGHT INTO A PRIVILEGE! Three days later they scourged him to death.

I'm not exactly clear on what the purpose of this section is. Is it to demonstrate the need for the First Amendment, or does it have something to do with the common right-wing aversion to professional licensure? Well, if the first, that's kind of a truism — I think most people except for those of a totalitarian bent, as well as who think Plato's Republic was the last word on good government, would agree. The licensure thing is more troubling though -- libertarians (as well as many other right-wingers) hate licensure because they see it as an unnecessary barrier to market entry. While the colonial Virginian government's motive was no doubt to insure loyalty to the Church of England, the argument still obtains today, not as a curb on doctrine, but as insurance that a church remains eligible for tax exempt status. However, licensure in general provides a generally-accepted baseline of competence in any situation where life and health are at stake. For further discussion on the value of licensure and market oversight, see health freedom.