As America celebrates its 250th birthday, I've been thinking about one of our nation's greatest gifts—freedom of religion. America’s founding was a remarkable historical pivot.
Consider the situation in the colonies just before independence. In his book Liberty in the Things of God, Robert Louis Wilken tells a 1771 story that is almost unimaginable today. An Anglican clergyman in Virginia rode into a Baptist camp meeting, dragged the preacher into an open field, and had him flogged publicly.
The lesson isn't that Anglicans were bad or Baptists were good. It's that when church and state become too closely allied, both are diminished.
North Carolina knew something about this as well. Before the Revolution, the Church of England was our colony's established church. Taxes supported it. The law favored it. Yet when North Carolina adopted its Constitution in 1776, it abandoned the idea that one church should enjoy the state's official blessing.
To be sure, the alliance of faith and government would protect and enable slavery, the 1898 coup, and segregation for two more centuries. But it's noteworthy that even before the federal Bill of Rights, North Carolina had begun to recognize that genuine faith cannot be created by law.
Freedom of religion grew naturally from the Declaration's conviction that our rights come not from government but from "Nature's God." If our rights are God-given rather than government-granted, government has no business compelling faith.
I say all this not as an attack on evangelical Christians, because that’s my tribe. I do believe what Jesus said about himself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." I simply neither need nor want government to do what Jesus called me to do: make disciples.
Jesus never recruited the Roman Empire to spread his message. He invited. "Come to me, all you who are weary." He asked questions. “Who do you say that I am?” He told stories. “The Kingdom of God is like sowing seed.” He loved. “Neither do I condemn you.” And, perhaps most importantly, he allowed people the freedom to walk away. Likewise, the Apostle Paul never asked us to pray that the emperor would favor his gospel; only that believers could live peaceful and quiet lives so the message would spread.
Like love, faith that is forced is not genuine.
I don't mean to imply Christians shouldn't engage the political system. We should vote, run for office, and advocate for the values we believe strengthen our common life. But citizenship and discipleship are not the same thing. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
The American experiment wasn't built on the idea that religion doesn't matter. Quite the opposite. It was built on the conviction that religion matters so deeply that it must remain free.
As we celebrate 250 years of our nation, I'm grateful not only that I have the freedom to preach Christ. I'm grateful that my neighbors have the freedom to disagree. Only where faith is freely chosen can it truly be faith.
Freedom of religion isn't just an American principle. It's one reason Jesus’ Good News, when properly understood, is such good news—for every American.
Bob Thompson is Interim Pastor at Windermere Presbyterian Church.
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