So How's the Tea in China?
You
know how it goes. “Hey, this is a free country. I can believe anything I want.”
The
response usually comes in the middle of a discussion about religion—usually
when some Christian is showing the absurdity of someone's religious belief. The
appeal to religious freedom is supposed to end the conversation.
Religious
freedom is beside the point in most of these conversations. The question is not
whether or not a person has the right to believe whatever he wants, but whether
or not what he believes is true. The appeal to religious freedom betrays a
mindset that sees no higher than the laws of the land. Because the law gives
religious liberty, it does not mean, therefore, that all religious beliefs are
of equal value or are true.
A
Practical Compromise
American
religious liberty is simply the result of compromise. At the time of the
Constitution, very few religious bodies believed in absolute religious freedom.
The Roman church didn't. The Lutheran's didn't, nor did the Anglicans, the
Methodists, the Presbyterians, nor the Congregationalists of New England. Only
the Baptist and Quakers, both of whom relegated the state to the realm of
Satan, advocated religious liberty, and they were much in the minority.
But
for the exceptions mentioned above all believed in established churches, but
only their own. This is where the catch was. None of them possessed the
political power to establish their church by law, although the
Congregationalists for a time succeeded in New England, as did the Anglicans in
some places. Even in Maryland, Lord Baltimore advocated religious freedom, not
because of dogma, but because he wanted to attract settlers to his colony.
Because
of the lack of uniformity in religion and the democratic nature of the
colonies, the rulers were faced with, what to them, were two unpleasant
choices: widespread persecution and oppression of dissenters, or religious
toleration. They opted for the second because of expediency, not conviction.
Even then the choice was made grudgingly and with much pain. As late as the War
for Independence some of the colonies still had established churches, and in
many others certain churches had favored status. But in America the churches,
even the Anglicans and Roman Catholic churches, had lost the stomach for
persecution, for the rack and the stake. The only thing left was toleration and
compromise. They decided that it was not the state's job to decide what was
true in religion.
Some
think that the jury may still be out on this, but others think it to be one of
the best compromises in the history of the church.
It's
Beside the Point
When
the Christian believer presses his friends about religious ideas, the appeal to
religious freedom is beside the point and ludicrous. The individual who trusts
in the civil compromise and refuses to make the decision about what is true in
religion is a fool. No one denies that in America you can worship Hormel Vienna
Sausages if you choose, but you do not become a wise man for doing so.
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Mail:
Pastor C. W. Powell
Trinity Covenant Church
6050 Del Paz Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
719-590-1477
Webpage: http://www.tcrc.faithweb.com
Email: