What is a Baptist? Religious Freedom
When I was in the third grade, (this would have been mid-late 90’s) I did a brief stint at a rural public elementary school in Elizabethtown, NC. Every day before lunch, the teacher would line us up and have us say a prayer (“God is great, God is good…”) before leaving for the cafeteria. This makes me cringe today. Suppose I was the mother of a third-grader who practiced a different religion and found out that my child was forced to pray to a God we didn’t believe in each day before being allowed to eat lunch. The Baptist in me wants to swoop down into history and turn the whole school inside out.
If I had to pick one aspect of Baptist heritage of which I am the most proud, it’s this one. Religious freedom is the truly historic Baptist affirmation of freedom OF, FOR, and FROM religion. As Baptists we have historically stood for this freedom not only for our own sakes, but for the sakes of all individuals - Christian or not. Another huge part of this fourth fragile freedom is that imbedded within the call for religious freedom is a call for separation of church and state. This is a very foundational Baptist belief - one that I think we’ve gotten right.
In 1612, Thomas Helwys, one of the founders of the Baptist tradition wrote a letter to King James I reminding him that “the king is a mortal man and not God and therefore has no power over the immortal souls of his subjects.” His letter went on to plead for complete religious freedom from the Church of England. He affirmed that a person’s religion is between God and the individual, and should not (and really cannot) be mandated by any ruling body. This letter was considered so heretical and scandalous that Helwys was thrown into prison and died there four years later.
Stateside, in the 17th century, Baptists like Roger Williams, John Clarke and Obadiah Holmes spoke prominently against State churches within the colonies - facing persecution, imprisonment, and death. In the 18th and 19th centuries this message of religious freedom was taken up by men like Isaac Backus and John Leland. No other denomination in America did more to accomplish the reality of religious freedom for all than Baptists.
“The church is not to be oppressed by the state, but it also is not to be accommodated for by the state.”
As I mentioned, Baptists have historically fought for freedom OF religion - freedom to worship however you please - FOR religion - freedom for all to worship how they please - and freedom FROM religion - freedom to choose not to worship at all. The church is not to be oppressed by the state, but it also is not to be accommodated for by the state. Freedom of religion is to be protected by the government, but that’s all - no more or less.
We believe this because we believe that we were made in the image of God and that, as such, we have individual freedom to choose how we relate to God. We believe that this is true of all people, and therefore affirm each person’s right to worship or not worship as they see fit.
This is the Baptist distinctive that I’m the most proud of - it’s the one that keeps me tethered to the Baptist church. However, lately, I’ve noticed that this is the affirmation that seems to be in the most danger, and the danger seems to be coming mostly from within the Baptist church! It is commonplace, now, to hear good Baptist church folk commiserating about “taking prayer out of schools,” or removing “in God we trust” from courthouses and off of currency. It is embarrassingly common for entire Baptist congregations and Baptists leaders to vocally support and even endorse a political candidate. These are things that should be raising red flags for us all over the place but are so normal that we hardly recognize them when we’re faced with them! It sometimes seems that we, of all people, have forgotten that “Caesar is not Christ, and Christ is not Caesar.” Roger Williams is rolling in his grave!
Friends, it is very easy to plead for freedom of religion when your religion is under fire. It’s easy to see that separation of church and state is important when you are the one facing persecution by the state. But the Baptist denomination in America has become large and somewhat powerful, and it would be (and seemingly has been) very easy for us to forget what our Baptist forefathers endured so that we may be free to worship as we wish today. May we make them proud and do our very best to uphold this very important Baptist belief - freedom of, freedom for, and freedom from religion - for all people.