The Importance of Religious Freedom to Missions and Evangelism
By Javier Elizondo

Editor’s note: The following was presented at Texas Baptists Committed Convocation, San Antonio, Texas, July 12, 2003

After working for about 11 years away from Texas, it is good to be here among Texas Baptists. I have been back in Texas for three years, but I still give thanks to the Lord often for opening this door of opportunity for me to come back and serve among some of the finest group of people I know.

Allow me to tell you briefly the perspective from which I speak about this topic that covers religious freedom, missions, and evangelism. I grew up across the border in Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico in a town that could easily be described paraphrasing the words of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz: Camargo “was so close to the United States and so far from God.” I was 14 years of age and I had not seen or read a Bible. I was already 14 years of age and not one person had ever told me that Jesus could forgive me of my sins and give me eternal life. As far as I have been able to research my family history, there had not been a born-again believer in either side of my family up to this time.

It was in that small town that a group of college students from the Texas Tech Baptist Student Union gave me the first witness of Christ. The Baptist mission in Camargo was built as a joint venture between the Rio Grande Valley Baptist Association and the First Baptist Church of Reynosa, Mexico. I was part of the first fruits on that joint venture between Texas Baptists and Mexican Baptists.

I grew up in a Mexico, a country that has had a love-hate relationship with the church, depending on what denomination the church was and whether we were talking of the national level, the state level, or the local level. There was one preferred denomination, and the others were more or less tolerated most of the time—with varying degrees of toleration—and periodic regional outbursts of persecution. Therefore, I grew up in a country where religious liberty did not exist and where the best we could expect to see was toleration and at times persecution.

Therefore, when I came to the United States to study, I was very pleasantly surprised with this great experiment of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. The idea that every human being is free to follow his own conscience in matters of religion struck a cord in my inner being. There is something that speaks to a higher order of humanity when citizens of the same country accord each other the right to believe or not to believe.

There are many places in Scripture where we can hang the religious freedom hat. For the purpose of this discussion, I would like for us to reflect on Genesis 1:27 as one of the places where we can hang the religious freedom hat. The Scripture says:

“So God created men in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

This principle of being created in the image of God informs at some level our understanding of religious freedom and the position we take whether in favor or against it.

I am going to argue that the position you take on this question of religious freedom (and incidentally, most other freedoms as well) is closely tied to our understanding of this principle of being created in the image of God.

In our theological discussion sometimes we frame our questions in terms of high views and low views. I believe the people who believe and defend religious freedoms have a high view of God and a high view of humanity.

We can speak from the point of personal experience and talk about a God who worked in our lives and in our hearts without coercion to bring us to the feet of the Savior, drawing us with the chords of love. Here is God at the task of evangelism and mission.

We can look at the stories told in the Gospels where we see a Jesus busy doing the work of the Kingdom, healing the ten lepers but not coercing them into a faith commitment. We can look at the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman as we see our master leading her gently in her understanding of faith toward a faith commitment to him as Messiah. We see a Jesus who touches the lives of many with his ministry, but leaves the question of their response to his ministry in the heart of each person he touched with his life.

There emerges a picture of a God who gives his creatures the freedom to choose to love him and follow him or not. Religious freedom was first practiced by God. To the extent that we grasp the concept of religious freedom and practice it, to that extent we are reflecting the character of the God in whose image we were created. And indeed it is a high view of God that emerges from the principle of religious freedom.

Furthermore, it evidences that the divine has a high view of us as created beings. God’s high view of his created beings allows us to have the choice to say yes to him. We are given the freedom to say no; but inherent in that freedom that God gives us, is the freedom to say an enthusiastic yes to him absent of manipulation and coercion.

Therefore, those of us who believe wholeheartedly in the principle of religious freedom, look at what God has done, and are moved to do likewise, as good imitators of our creator. We wish to maintain and reflect a high view of God, the true God who does not need the power of the sword to convert the heart of the unbeliever, but who chooses to persuade through the power of his love, his tender mercies, and his kindness.

We also choose to have a high view of men and women. We choose to believe that God was right when he gave them the right to follow the dictates of their own conscience in matters of faith. And we choose not to be a part of any movement, Christian or otherwise, who wishes to take away what the God almighty chose to give freely to every human being on the face of this earth!

George W. Truett’s words on this topic helped me clarify my thinking on this subject of the importance of the principle of religious freedom to the missionary and evangelistic task of the church. George W. Truett said that:

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

As observers of this lofty American experiment we call religious freedom, we can testify that the keen insight of this great brother of ours of times past is evident in the many other freedoms that we are happy to enjoy in this country of ours. We also say that one of the reasons religious free-dom is important to missions and evangelism is because of how it nurtures, feeds, strengthens, and helps flourish the other freedoms that are so important in the pursuit of being fully human and truly human. Our hearts cry for the freedom to follow the dictates of our conscience in matters of faith; but they also cry for the freedom to speak, the freedom to assemble, the freedom to choose those who will govern us, and the many other freedoms that enrich our lives and bless us and others.

Allow me to share some areas in which the principle of religious freedom informs and enriches our missionary and evangelistic task.

1. The principle of religious freedom gives us the opportunity to share this lofty principle with the peoples of the world who have come to appreciate the other freedoms our North American society upholds.

In our missionary and evangelistic enterprises, we Baptists are at the forefront in lifting high the banner of religious freedom. There have always been fellow Christians and others who find religious freedom a rather unattractive option, something to tolerate rather than celebrate. But in the last thirty years, some Baptists have chosen to align themselves with these groups. They have sought to undermine this principle of religious freedom and compromise it. And for this reason, part of what we have to offer the peoples of the world in our missionary and evangelistic efforts as Texas Baptists is to give them a chance to be exposed to this principle that has served us so well across these centuries in this United States of America. As an adopted son of this great country, and an adopted son of Texas, this is one of the precious liberties that I have grown to appreciate and love. I know, there are many today that were like me, before the Savior found me, who are walking in darkness and who, when presented with the claims of Christ, will respond to it favorable, and whose new life in Christ will be enriched by this principle of religious freedom that we celebrate as Texas Baptists.

2. The principle of religious freedom challenges us to do our missionary and evangelistic work attempting to minister to the whole person.

If we were to line up on our left the Baptist people who believe in religious liberty and on the right those who do not, and we were to observe as they go about their task of doing evangelism and missions, I think you would see some difference in their approach to evangelism and missions. Those of you who believe in this principle of religious liberty see the unbeliever as fellow strugglers in the pursuit of faith who need to be ministered as people of value. It is more than just “saving a soul.” Our missionary and evangelistic efforts speak to clothing the body, feeding the stomach, healing the body, educating the mind, and giving the person an opportunity to respond in faith to the claims of Christ.

Part of the evangelistic and missionary witness we give as Texas Baptists is this holistic approach to ministry. We fight the tendency to move to unacceptable extremes, whether it be to do the work of meeting the physical needs of the person and neglecting the spiritual ones; or the opposite limited response of meeting the spiritual needs of the person and neglecting the physical ones. Our approach to missions and evangelism encompass the whole spectrum of human need.

I want to speak to you about two areas in which I think we can make a significant contribution in our missionary and evangelistic endeavors as Baptists as we look at this holistic approach of doing missions and evangelism.

First, I believe one of the great missionary opportunities we have today to give a witness as people of faith is our treatment of the alien among us.

As Baptists, we have shown through the years a certain concern for presenting the claims of the gospel to the Spanish speaking people who live here with us. Among that group, there is a significant number of undocumented aliens—the sojourner in our midst.

We have shown our concern for this undocumented community by offering ESL classes in our churches, by providing clothing and food as needed. We must continue to do that, for this is truly part of our evangelistic and missionary response to these people who are in need. But we can do other things that will give a significant witness to these millions. As residents and citizens of this country, we could say a word on behalf of these aliens individually to our elected officials. We could speak on their behalf and be their advocates to help them secure their basic human rights.

Secondly, our inability as a nation to protect these millions of people created in the image of God demand that the community of faith speak clearly and unequivocally in favor of protecting the human human rights of these who are not citizens of this country, but who serve this country with sacrificial labor, and serve it well.

To speak such a word on their behalf would give a witness to them that we care not just about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to them, but we also care for their protection, their safety, and their rights as members of the human family.

As religion freedom enthusiasts, we are asking that the alien among us be given the right to benefit from his labor, the freedom to live in peace without being mistreated and persecuted, and the freedom to pursue his dreams in the company of his wife and children. These are basic rights.

We must be reminded that as people of old, we ourselves are sojourners too in this life, for this is not our home. And this informs our decision making as we decide what to do as individuals, as a community of faith, and as a nation in our treatment of this community of the forgotten.

A second area in which we can make a missionary and evangelistic statement in the years to come is in the area of education.

The holistic approach to missions and evangelism creates a big umbrella under which we can fit the critical needs of the people we are trying to reach with the claims of the gospel. We cannot follow the lead of the naïve among our Baptist family who boldly proclaim that if we just evangelize and congregate, we are accomplishing our missionary task. It might be possible to do this among the Anglo Baptist family for a few years where we have ample trained leadership and ample numbers of institutions where our ministers are trained. But this naïve approach to our missionary task has created a crisis of leadership among Hispanic Baptists and the problem only promises to become worse unless we make drastic changes and improvements in this area.

We as Baptists have created impressive educational institutions in our history. But those institutions have failed to educate the people that we need to train in ministry to be able to reach the masses that are unchurched. This vacuum in leadership training is especially evident in the Hispanic community. Although I am sure we are not the only community in this predicament.

Our religious freedom views give us the perspective that all the peoples of the world must be given the opportunity to receive the greatest gift of all—a personal relationship with Christ the Savior. But we must ask: “how will they hear, unless there is someone to go and proclaim the Good News of Jesus to them?” Our missionary and evangelistic intentions must give account of how we plan to train those who will take the lead in evangelizing the different people groups.

The Baptist principle of the priesthood of the believer gives us the perspective that as believers, we stand as forgiven sinners before the throne of grace, and we stand on level ground—we are all equal before the eyes of God. The Baptist principle of religious liberty gives us the perspective that believers and non-believers have the same claims regardless of race, ethnicity or social condition to follow the dictates of our own conscience in matters of faith. In other words, the principle of religious liberty does for the unbeliever what the priesthood of the believer does for the Christian—it liberates him and her from the tyranny of the misguided who are always to quick to attempt to usurp the place of God in the conscience of others.

There is a close affinity between these two basic Baptist principles. Both principles appeal to our sense of justice—that all of us be treated in a just way, whether we are believers or potential believers. It appears to me very logical to think that this sense of justice must show itself in our evangelistic and missionary tasks as we seek to provide train leadership for all the people groups who we seek to evangelize. It is only just that they also have trained leadership to witness to them, disciple them, and minister to them—I look at this issue of theological education from different angles, and I always come back to this, above all, it is a question of justice, the just distribution of the resources that the Lord has provided for the people of God. To do otherwise in the distribution of our missionary and theological education resources is to be unjust!

3. The principle of religious freedom challenges us to do our evangelism and missions in a way that respects the rights of others.

The respect we have for the believer and the unbeliever affects the way we choose to do church. The high regard we have for religious liberty leads us to celebrate the variety of expressions available for people to feel free to worship in accordance with their preferences.

The respect we show for religious freedom would help us extend that respect to the diversity of options for doing church, evangelism, and mission. Our frame of mind becomes one of celebration, as we see these models develop and multiply and as we see the evangelistic and missionary results of this diversity.

4. The principle of religious freedom challenges us to organize our missionary/ evangelistic enterprises in a way that utilizes the whole community of believers regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or social condition.

As we look at our history as Baptists, the missionary movement has been severely absent of people of color. It is interesting that the first area to be integrated and include people of color and a diversity of cultural representatives in our missionary enterprise was in the area of home missions, and particularly in the areas of evangelism and church planting. Of course, you know that the reason this happened is because the ethnic/language challenges in home missions made it impossible to accomplish our task of evangelization unless we included in our missionary organizations people of the given ethnic/language we wanted to reach. We must say that this strategic decision by our Baptist leaders, whatever the motive, made it possible to experience the unprecedented growth of Baptists among ethnic groups in North America.

The missionary and evangelistic challenge of the 21st century gives us a tremendous opportunity to organize our new missionary and evangelistic organizations with a view to utilizing representatives from our entire Baptist family, paying special attention to including people of color. The opportunity for representatives from all of our people groups to participate in the worldwide evangelization and missionary enterprise is truly and exciting possibility.

A parallel thought is the effort to partner with Baptist from other countries as we seek to evangelize and do missionary work. The possibility of a Baptist from the U.S. working alongside a Baptist from Mexico, serving as equals in a missionary task in Africa gives a witness to the redemptive love of Christ in their lives. Our Texas Baptist partnerships with Mexico and Spain give the opportunity to creatively partner with these Baptist brothers and sisters, as equal partners, in the missionary and evangelistic tasks before us.

5. The principle of religious freedom challenges us to use only the resources of the community of faith to do the work of evangelism and missions instead of looking for the state to contribute its share to advance our work.

We must fight the urge to follow the easy way, that is to use the money of the State to accomplish the tasks of the Kingdom. The Great Commission was given to the church, not to the state. We must fight the misguided efforts of people who blur the line between church and state. As one of my professors at Baylor used to say, when the church goes to bed with the state, it is always the church that ends up pregnant.

The great American experiment with religious freedom has served well the missionary and evangelistic efforts of Baptist throughout our history. We will do well to continue to champion and defend this treasure bequeathed to us by men and women of faith who paid a heavy price to leave us such an inheritance.

I do not know how appropriate it is to speak of heroes when we talk about people who are still in the land of the living. As Bro. Bob Norman, one of my pastors used to say, “those of us who still live in the land of the dying.” But one of our Baptist brethren that has been a champion of freedom and whom I respect greatly is former President Jimmy Carter. He has been one of my role models throughout my Christian life.

I was telling my wife last night that I knew when I spoke at the meeting there would be some people here for whom I have a great respect, similar to the respect I have for my brother Jimmy Carter. The manner in which you have defended the principles of religious freedom, the priesthood of the believer, soul competency, and other cherished Baptist beliefs is worthy of respect. That voice needs to be heard, and it needs to be heard loudly. And we must let the great principle of religious freedom illuminate and inform our decision making, our organization, and our distribution of resources as we do our evangelistic and missionary work.

In the words of the Apostle Paul when speaking of people who had earned his respect: “for they refreshed my Spirit and yours also, and such people deserve to be recognized” (1 Corinthians 16:17). What you have done through these years of labor and advocacy as Texas Baptists Committed has refreshed our spirits in a time of great dryness of spirit in our Baptist family at large.

May we continue to work together, all the people of God, as we seek to refresh the spirit of a world who needs our missionary and evangelistic presence. May we walk truly as brothers and sisters, standing together at the feet of the cross, equal partners in the wonderful task of proclaiming the goodness of the one who redeemed us.

Javier Elizondo is dean of academic affairs, Hispanic Baptist Theological School, San Antonio, TX

October 2003