The 2006 Religious Liberty Essay Contest, sponsored by the Religious Liberty Council ofthe Baptist Joint Committee,
was established to engage Baptist high school juniors and
seniors in church-state issues and to generate student interest
from a diverse cross-section of the BJC’s supporting bodies.
This year’s topic was “Why the separation of church and state is necessary to ensure religious liberty for all.”
The grand prize winner is James Gorsuch of Arden, N.C., with an essay titled “The Wall
of Separation: Its Distinguished Past and Questionable Future.” Gorsuch received a
$1,000 cash prize and a trip to Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the BJC board
meeting on Oct. 2. Gorsuch graduated in June from West
Henderson High School in Hendersonville, N.C. He attends Elon University as the
recipient of the Kenan Honors Fellow Scholarship. He is a
member of First Baptist Church of Asheville and is the son of Jeff and Brenda Gorsuch.

“Is it the duty of a deist to support that which he believes to be a cheat and imposition? Is it the duty of the Jew to support the religion of Jesus Christ, when he really believes that he was an imposter? Must the papist be forced to pay men for preaching down the supremacy of the Pope, whom they are sure is the head of the church?” argued John Leland, a leading crusader for religious liberty in America, in 1794. “Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics.” Leland pledged his support to James Madison’s Constitution and helped to ensure that both Virginia and Massachusetts would ratify it only with the promise of a bill of rights. The first of these rights was one that this Baptist minister held as the most important, one that had been the basis of America since the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, freedom of and from religion. What would America be like today if the First Amendment had not been included in the Bill of Rights? Would there be a government-sponsored church or a cabinet position for church leaders? At first glance these questions seem unnecessary in America because of the protections granted by the First Amendment as well as the examples set by our founding fathers, including Thomas Jefferson’s famous call for a “wall of separation” between religion and government. However, growing support of legislation supporting faith-based initiatives, parochial schools, and religious agendas make these questions relevant in modern America.

Separating the government from any faith is crucial to religious liberty in America, as it has been throughout history. Throughout the last 2000 years, statesponsored religion has led to the persecution and death of people of every faith. Whether in Rome as Christians were butchered for entertainment in the Coliseum, during the Crusades, in Puritan settlements in Colonial America, or even in modern Islamic theocracies in the Middle East, government guided by one faith has invariably stolen the basic human right of the freedom to worship any god or to worship nothing at all. For this reason, 17th Century English Baptist Thomas Helwys demanded full religious liberty of England’s King James. He stated, “Men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the king shall not answer for it, neither may the king be judge between God and man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.” Although Helwys was thrown into jail for the remainder of his life for his sentiments, he is a key example of a dedicated Christian’s understanding of the importance of religious liberty.

America was envisioned by many of its founders as a place where the history of religious persecution would change, where every man would be free to worship in his own way. This is the reason the Pilgrims first came to the New World, and it is the reason that people of every faith have flocked to the United States for more than two centuries. Freedom of religion was included in the First Amendment because of the possibility that even a well-intentioned state religion could and almost certainly would result in the loss of religious freedom. Colonial America, however, often exhibited examples of state-sponsored religion that were later outlawed in the First Amendment. The Baptist pastor John Clarke arrived in Boston in 1637 with his wife Elizabeth. Like many making the journey from England in that time period, they had come to the New World to find religious liberty. Instead they found taxes required to support ministers employed by the state and the threat of civil prosecution for anyone excommunicated from the church. This same John Clarke, in the following years, founded the second Baptist church in America and helped to found Rhode Island, the first of the colonies where religious liberty was granted to all.

Baptists and other devoted Christians throughout American history have recognized the necessity of guaranteed religious freedom if faith is to flourish. While writing the Constitution, James Madison was approached by such figures as John Marshall, the federalist Supreme Court chief justice, to designate Christianity as a national religion. Madison, however, disagreed with these men, arguing that religion would flourish more if not supported by the government, and that the government should not impose religion on its people. “In the Papal system, Government and Religion are in a manner consolidated, and that is found to be the worst of governments,” he wrote in a letter to the Rev. Jasper Adams, who had asked him whether the country wouldn’t be better off if Christianity were acknowledged as the national religion.

In America today, religiously motivated legislation is becoming increasingly prevalent. Many believe that the government should outlaw such practices as abortion and homosexual marriage based solely on their religious beliefs. America has drifted far from the example of such wise Christians as John Leland, Thomas Helwys, and John Clarke, men who understood that when a government endorses a faith, religious liberty is impossible. Christians are battling to have the Ten Commandments displayed prominently in courthouses and other government-owned buildings. The words “under God,” added to the Pledge of Allegiance during the Cold War to distinguish America from the Soviet Union, are now held by some as evidence of the government’s preferred faith, and public schools include prayers as part of football games and graduation ceremonies. All of these actions show ignorance and contempt of the Constitution of the United States, which not only guarantees freedom of religion, but freedom from religion. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” a statement made by learned men and dedicated Christians because without the guarantee of the free exercise of faith, one of the basic principles of the founding of this great nation, religious liberty cannot exist.

Works Cited:

* “John Leland on Separation of Church and State.” Separation of Church and State Home Page. 10 May 2006 http://www.members.tripod.com/candst/ tnppage/qleland.htm.

* “James Madison on Separation of Church and State.” Separation of Church and State Home Page. 10 May 2006 http://www.members.tripod.com/candst/ tnppage/qleland.htm.

* “Madison’s Letter to Jasper Adams.” Separation of Church and State Home Page. 10 May 2006 http://www.members.tripod.com/candst/tnppage/ qleland.htm.

* “Pastor John Clarke, M.D.” Lehigh Valley Baptist Church. 1996. Lehigh Valley Baptist Church. 10 May 2006 http://www.lvbaptist.org/cameos/bcclark. html.

* Prescott, Bruce. “Recovering the Baptist Legacy.” Mainstream Baptists. 17 April 1999. Mainstream Baptists. 10 May 2006 http:// www.mainstreambaptists.org/mob4/recover_legacy.htm.

February 2007