BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. — A leading Baptist voice for national religious liberty brought the issues of religious freedom and the 2012 election from the capital to Gardner-Webb University this month.
K. Hollyn Hollman, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, spent two days on campus discussing with students the importance of religious freedom and political engagement.
In a special Life of the Scholar presentation at Gardner-Webb, Hollman analyzed the ways candidates typically “use” and sometimes “abuse” voters’ religious convictions along the campaign trail. She encouraged students to interpret whether candidates’ appeals to religion are reasonable and appropriate in the light of the church-state distinction in America — a distinction she insists is imperative.
Hollyn Hollman encouraged students to interpret whether candidates’ appeals to religion are reasonable and appropriate. (Gardner-Webb photo)
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“It is understandable that many citizens want to elect candidates who share their values,” she said, “but we make a real mistake when we equate a political party or a candidate with our religious affiliation, or when we equate our governmental leaders with our God.”
Christians, she said, are citizens of two communities — their political community and the Kingdom of God — and they must not confuse the two. “Those people we elect to lead our political community are responsible to all citizens without regard to religion, and that is as it should be,” Hollman said. “We should be glad that there are people being raised in various religious traditions who are strong Americans and wonderful leaders for that political community.”
Hollman insisted that church-state separation does not mean Christians shouldn’t exercise their religious convictions when making political decisions. “As Christians, we can ask our government officials the hard questions, and tell them what our values are,” she said. “But we should also stand by our founders’ design of a government that does not equate political citizenship with our religious views, and be very careful that we guard that design.”
Hollman explained that the commitment to church-state separation is interwoven with the deepest roots of Baptist heritage. “The pioneers of early Baptist life were people who had experienced firsthand the dangers of religious zeal when connected with the coercive powers of the State. They spent their lives fighting against that sort of religious persecution. They knew that for religious conviction to be true and sincere, it must necessarily be free.”
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She also pointed out theological reasons for Baptists’ commitment to religious freedom. “Baptists believe that we were created freely in God’s image to enjoy relationship with him. We can only have true relationship, though, when our choice to pursue that relationship is free and not coerced.”
Ultimately, Hollman praised Gardner-Webb students’ desire to exercise their political voice, and challenged them to continue searching for ways to use their freedom and to channel their religious and political convictions into productive citizenship, regardless of their own party or creed.
“Freedom is scary,” she said. “It takes a life’s work to figure out how to best use the freedom that we’re given. But I hope you recognize and claim that freedom that you enjoy, the freedom that is the envy of the rest of the world, and that you will remember to balance your freedom with the sense of responsibility to love and serve one another.”
Matt Walters (mbwalters@gardner-webb.edu) is assistant director for executive communications at Gardner-Webb University.