Texas Baptists Committed - A Rancher's Rumblings, July 29, 2008

I hang onto the hope that we are making progress in our thinking as Baptists and yes, as Americans, but reality sometimes bursts my bubble.

This week, the San Angelo Standard Times, my local paper, published a letter to the editor that sent shivers up my spine.

It told of the “horror” experienced by the writer upon hearing a political candidate state, “We are no longer a Christian nation” and acknowledge the diversity of faiths held by Americans today.

The writer went on to encourage everyone to show their support for “America as a Christian Nation” by contacting various TV network news organizations. Then she ended her letter by appealing to the readers to use their votes to demonstrate “that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation.”

No, the "shivers up my spine" weren't the same as the writer's "horror." What gave me shivers was that her "horror" was based on a total misunderstanding of the founding and history of America.

America is not now and never has been a Christian nation, and all of us should get down on our knees every night to thank God that it isn’t. America was founded as a totally secular nation to protect the religious freedom of all of its citizens. Remember – we Baptists were oppressed in other countries when our numbers were small. So is it right for us, now that we are in a country that has large numbers of Christians, to oppress others? What happened to the Golden Rule?

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Regardless of what you hear, most wars are not about oil – they are mostly about religion. In most cases, one religious group tries to use political and military power to impose its religion on another country or group of people. Thanks to the First Amendment, America has never fought a war over religion. In America, all religions and beliefs enjoy total and complete religious liberty. Thank God.

How did religious liberty in America come about? Well, before the First Amendment was adopted, several colonies made a habit of putting our Baptist forefathers in jail – just for preaching the Gospel or, in some cases, specifically for preaching believer’s baptism. Baptist leaders – for a start, go look up the name of John Leland – persuaded James Madison to insist on a constitutional provision securing religious liberty. So the First Amendment was born, containing 16 precious words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The founders of this nation understood that religious persecution ALWAYS resulted from the joining of government and religion. Let me illustrate with a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson:

"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." – Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1813

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"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." – Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814

"Our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions more than our opinions in physics or geometry." – Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779

I have said this over and over through the years but feel compelled to say it again. America is a nation that has many Christians precisely because America has NOT made Christianity an official government-sponsored and government-sanctioned religion. We are a free nation that has many Christians, but we are not now and have never been a “Christian nation.”

I thank God for this freedom – we are free to worship a God who desires our devotion given freely, not coerced by the state. On the other hand, those who do not wish to worship God as we do are free to follow their beliefs as well. This freedom is given by God – thank God that we live in a country that acknowledges that God-given freedom. I wish every single nation in the world had this religious freedom. If they did, then our missionaries could freely share Jesus without fear of punishment by any government.

So I encourage you to thank God every day for this freedom – for you and for your neighbors. Then go out and exercise it by worshipping and praising Him – and sharing Jesus as you go.