Most Americans shake their heads in disbelief when they read of 250 Christian families in Katcha Khoh, Pakistan, being ordered from their traditional homeland because they objected to sexual assaults of Christian girls and women by Muslims. (The Alabama Baptist, June 17)
Most Americans cannot understand why government officials in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, would fine a Baptist believer 20 times the monthly minimum wage because he possessed religious literature, including a New Testament, which the government ordered destroyed. (The Alabama Baptist, June 10)
Most Baptists would empathize with Christians in Bekasi, Indonesia, who have been trying to get a building permit for a new church building since 2006. (The Alabama Baptist, April 1)
When one reads news stories like these, it is easy to understand why Baptists in most parts of the world pray for the freedom that Baptists in the United States take for granted — the freedom of religious liberty and separation of church and state.
Outside of the United States, Baptists have always lived as a minority people. Baptists were birthed in a struggle to differ with a state church and have fought for the right to worship God freely according to the dictates of their own hearts.
In 1612, Thomas Helwys, pastor of the first Baptist church on English soil, wrote in A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity, “The king is a mortall man, and not God therefore hath no power over ye immortall souls of his subjects.” For such insolence, King James (of the King James Version of the Bible) had him thrown in prison, where he later died.
Also during that time (1612–1614), in the first written Baptist statement of faith called Propositions and Conclusions Concerning the True Christian Religion, John Smyth wrote, “That the magistrate is not by virtue of his office to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, to force or compel men to this or that form of religion or doctrine; but to leave Christian religion free to every man’s conscience and to handle only civil transgressions … for Christ only is the King and Lawgiver of the Church and conscience (James 4:12).”
The battle for the right of individuals to answer to God for their religious beliefs and not to government has been difficult, even in the United States. Baptist historian Leon McBeth wrote, “Many Baptists were severely whipped, forced to pay taxes to support the state church, had property confiscated, paid fines and suffered lingering imprisonments” because of their religious beliefs.
Baptist pastors were forbidden to preach without a government license, but only ministers of the state church were given licenses. Stories abound of Baptist preachers proclaiming the gospel to waiting crowds through the bars of jail cells.
When public calamities occurred, ministers of state churches frequently interpreted them as God’s punishment for allowing Baptists and other “dissenters” to live in an area. Thus Baptists were blamed for Indian raids as well as outbreaks of pestilences. Evidently the tendency to scapegoat some group for the heartaches of history is a long-standing practice.
Some scholars say the stars all aligned to allow religious liberty and separation of church and state to be embraced for the first time in history in the United States. They point to the impact of the first Great Awakening in the early 1700s that emphasized personal decisions in matters of religion. On the secular side was the Enlightenment, which followed shortly and expressed the belief that individuals should decide issues for themselves. Both undermined the idea of religious coercion inherent in a state church.
Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Mennonites and others advocated religious liberty based on religious convictions. Among them was Baptist pastor and evangelist John Leland of Virginia, who declared, “Every man must give an account of himself to God, and therefore every man ought to be at liberty to serve God in a way that he can best reconcile to his conscience.” Leland added, “Religion is a matter between God and individuals with the religious opinions of men not being the objects of civil government nor in any way under its control.”
While some wanted freedom “from” religion, Baptists championed freedom “for” religion. They wanted the freedom to worship, preach and practice according to their own convictions about biblical teachings. For them, separation of church and state would provide freedom to believe and practice as they chose and mean that no one would be forced to share those convictions or participate in those practices.
Leland played a key role in translating Baptists’ desire for religious liberty into the law of the United States. After a lengthy meeting with James Madison, Leland withdrew as a candidate for Congress from Virginia and led Baptists to support Madison, who had promised to introduce a Bill of Rights to the new U.S. Constitution. At the beginning of that Bill of Rights would be religious liberty.
In 1791, Congress finally passed the Bill of Rights introduced by Madison as amendments to the U.S. Constitution.The first of those amendments declares, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
For more than two centuries, Baptists in the United States have been steadfast defenders of religious liberty and separation of church and state. Support for religious liberty has even grown to become a part of U.S. foreign policy. Now the nation attempts to advance the position espoused by Smyth and Helwys — government has no right to interfere in matters of religion or doctrine; religion is a matter of individual conscience. Freedom of religion is now called a basic human right.
What Baptists claim for themselves, they also protect for others since the right of religious freedom is a gift bestowed by God and not by government or denomination. When Baptists stand for religious freedom, they preserve that sacred space between God and man for God alone. No one else may trespass there.
Religious liberty is the first freedom. From it comes freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to advocate through petition and even freedom of the press to share one’s views. This Fourth of July Sunday it is certainly appropriate for Baptists and all Americans to give thanks to God for our first freedom — religious liberty.
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