By Zachary Bailes
Dear America:
I hope this finds you well. It has been some time since we last spoke. I can’t reveal my whereabouts, as the Church of England is still fairly displeased with my separatist ways. In any case, I write you to encourage greater religious dialogue, and the broadening of religious liberty.
Times have changed since I last preached. You have new-fangled “iPhones” and “iPads.” Next thing you know there will be “iSermons.” There’s probably an “app” for that. In any case, I’m a traditionalist. If anything is “traditional” it’s religious liberty. While technology changes, dialects change and mores change the existence of religious liberty must never fade.
You’re facing new challenges, especially with Islamophobia running rampant. In my day I was the “Muslim.” Seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? But throughout history there have been religious groups ostracized and persecuted because they didn’t support the status quo, or they were not the status quo. The Baptist conviction of soul liberty speaks to and for all religious voices. Where there is a religious conviction there must be the freedom to sing out those deep convictions, which God has placed deep in the heart of every person.
Surely you have had and will have discussions concerning truth. These are necessary, for we are all on a journey of discovering this existence. Yet we are on this journey together, and vehement attitudes or misplaced anger toward religions will not further your understanding of this existence. God speaks through conversation and relationships. Religious liberty encourages deeper relationships and authentic engagement. Truth speaks in the breaths between sentences, and through relating we are liberated into love and peace.
I wish there had been greater religious liberty when I walked the earth. Perhaps I would not have become disillusioned with the church. Yet there are many among you – young and old – that have become disillusioned and disenfranchised with the church. Many no longer feel they can speak their convictions. You must rekindle the impetus to speak not only for yourselves, but also for our collective future.
I understand Islamophobia is running rampant. In my day they called it “Baptistphobia.” I’m sure some of that still exists. A Congregationalist clergyman born nearly 150 years after my death once said, “Liberty is the soul’s right to breathe, and, when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight. Without liberty man is in a syncope.”
I’m sure you know that quote well. Henry Ward Beecher’s statement is almost as good as my 1644 statement: “Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will.” I will admit that his use of “syncope ” captures well my confounding of “civil and religious liberty.”
Itis an imperative that those of you in the majority speak for those in the minority. Their voice does not possess the unequivocal power yours has. Even more, when you join together for mutual protection of religious liberty the results are even more impactful. While you may not agree with those identifying as Muslim, or any other religion for that matter, you must protect their freedom to worship without obstruction, without persecution.
I must leave you now, but before I depart – no pun intended – I want to encourage you to dig deep into your history and into your future. The same challenges I faced, Muslims now face. Do not let them suffer restriction of their religious liberty because of “truth” or because people sling the word “terrorist” around so easily and falsely. It hurts to be condemned for something you’re not. I was ostracized because I refused to live in syncope. I allowed the dumb willingness of my soul to breathe deeply.
As my contemporary John Milton said so eloquently, “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”
Well, I rest in the arms of a more perfect union. I will rest in the cradle of peace and dignity. I will rest in the hope of a better humanity. But, it is how you wake that will define the future. What is within is greater than any force. Together, for each other, men and women of all creeds form a more perfect union.
Pugnacious? Perhaps. Baptist? Absolutely.
Until next time,
Roger Williams