A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
Religious Freedom: What makes America, America
By David R. Currie
Executive Director

Part one: A brief examination of history

“Religious liberty is the nursing mother of all liberty. Without it all other forms of liberty must soon wither and die.” — George W. Truett

George W. Truett, the pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, and president of the Baptist World Alliance preached these words in Atlanta, Georgia, at the 1939 meeting of the Baptist World Alliance. It is my opinion that every person should memorize and treasure these words, along with the words to the first amendment. For me, they concisely explain, “What makes America, America.”

Why is America the most Christian nation in the world?
Why is America the most free nation in the world?
Why is America the most prosperous nation in history?
Why is America the most open society in the world?

I say to you it is because of the first amendment that begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

No nation had ever given such freedom to its citizens. Every previous nation had in some way combined the power of the church with the rule of the state.

How did our American founders come to such a radical idea? They based their decision on the lessons of history.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1813, “History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.”

In 1814 Jefferson wrote: “In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.”

Jefferson, James Madison, and other founding fathers knew well the abuses that always occurred when civil and religious power were joined together. History was a clear record, including horrible abuses such as the Crusades and the Inquisition.

Even the Reformation failed to embrace religious liberty. The Zurich, Switzerland city council, free from Catholic control and embracing the Swiss reformation, voted in 1527 that “believer’s baptism was punishable by death,” thus executing many more radical reformers, called Anabaptists, who insisted that the government should have no power over the church and vice versa and that baptism was for adults who professed in Christ.

The idea of religious freedom would surface again in England in 1612, when an early Baptist, Thomas Helwys, wrote, “The King is a mortal man and not God and therefore has no power over the immortal souls of his subjects… men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves.” Helwys was imprisoned for such writings and died in prison in 1616.

It is true that many who came to America came to avoid persecution in England. What is often not acknowledged is that these same persons, once in America, persecuted those who disagreed with them.

Roger Williams was run out of Massachusetts for his views championing total religious freedom for all. He formed the colony of Rhode Island, the only colony that granted religious freedom for all. Later Rhode Island College (now Brown University) was formed and was the only college in America that anyone could attend, regardless of religion.

The first president of Harvard College, Henry Dunster, was fired for believing Baptist views on baptism.

Dr. John Clarke, a Baptist minister and physician was one of several Baptist ministers sentenced to be whipped at the State House in Boston for holding a worship service without permission.

In Colonial Virginia, many Baptist ministers were imprisoned for preaching without a license.

These circumstances led a group of Baptist ministers to meet with James Madison in Virginia prior to the constitutional convention that led to the Bill of Rights and insisted on the language, which became the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

This experiment with religious freedom was not without opposition. Many states were slow to follow. Baptists in Connecticut were persecuted because the Congregational Church controlled the state. They wrote to President Jefferson in 1801 stating “that religion is at all times and places a matter between God and Individuals (sic).” They asked his help in making it clear that all persons should have religious freedom.

Jefferson replied in a letter dated, January 1, 1802, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God: that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship: that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”

Slowly, over time, all states also embraced religious freedom for all.

Today, many still attack this “wall of separation.” In the last issue of the Southern Baptist Texan published by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, Mark Coppenger writes, “this wall is not found in the constitution.” Other SBC leaders agree.

James Madison wrote in 1819, “The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State.”

Christianity Today recently published an article quoting Alexis de Tocqueville during his famous tour of America in 1831. Tocqueville wrote that he found a vibrant, flourishing crop of denominations and churches and that all agreed that “the main reason for the quiet sway of religion over their country was the complete separation of church and state.” He added that throughout his stay in America he met “nobody, lay or cleric, who did not agree about that.”

Has the experiment worked? I think it has. No other country has such lively and public debates over religion. Many other countries routinely fight wars over religious beliefs but none have occurred in American history.

America, by not officially being a Christian nation, has become a very Christian nation with as much as 70 to 80 percent of the population claiming to be Christian, without official governmental pressure to convert to Christianity.

Freedom of religion naturally encourages people to think for themselves, and provides the backbone for democratic government.

People come to America for religious freedom and naturally embrace economic freedom. By championing public schools early in our history, a direct result of religious freedom, we are a highly educated society, which leads to a more prosperous society.

What makes America, America? In my opinion, it is primarily because of religious freedom, which guarantees all our freedoms. Those who would change what I believe is the backbone of our democracy and our freedom are headed in a dangerous direction.

In the next issue, we will examine some specific assaults on religious freedom, many by well-meaning persons. These assaults primarily play off the fears of people and threaten the freedom of every American.

October 2003