Religious liberty is most appreciated by those deprived of it.
In 1685 Louis XIV of France revoked the famous Edict of Nantes which had commanded a kind of religious freedom (toleration) for the French Huguenots. “If God preserve the king, there will not be one Huguenot left twenty years hence,” said one of Louis’ friends. Thousands were killed and thousands of others fled the country. Just a few were saved. The first admiral in France was, himself, a Huguenot. The king sent for him and begged him to become a Roman Catholic; but the old hero pointed to his grey hair. “For sixty years, sire, have I rendered to Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s: suffer me still to render unto God the things that are God’s.” He was 80 years old, he had served his country well and Louis spared him.
Jim White
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This is but one of hundreds of examples that could be cited where a religious majority believed it was acting in accord with God’s wishes by making it impossible for others to practice their “heretical” religious beliefs openly. Because the majority believed it was keeping the minority from practicing heresy, they justified persecutions and even executions to block their unholy worship.
More recently and closer to home, Baptists in Virginia experienced persecution from Commonwealth magistrates acting in concert with the established church. From their perspective, Baptists left their infants in an abhorrent state of spiritual vulnerability by refusing to baptize them. Given the infant mortality rate of the period, the thought that these children could leave this world lacking the grace bestowed by baptism was the worst kind of child abuse.
From their point of view, their actions were understandable. Baptists, however, believing that sprinkling a few drops of water on the baby’s head bestowed neither grace nor salvation, rightly viewed the magisterial punishments as persecution. Because Baptists and other groups were “free” to exist in practice, it was believed that religious freedom was given. Baptists, of course, begged to differ.
In other parts of the world, too, religious liberty is largely in the eye of the beholder. A few years ago I had the good fortune to be included in a group of Baptist state paper editors invited by the Jordanian tourism office to visit that Hashemite kingdom. One afternoon we sat on the palace grounds and visited with Prince Hassan, brother of the late King Hussein.
He was quite proud of the religious freedom offered in Jordan! Christians are allowed to practice their religious beliefs and even to participate in the government. Considering how repressive other Islamic states in the region are, this degree of religious toleration is astounding.
But religious toleration and religious freedom are vastly different things. We asked if Christians had the right to evangelize. No. Certainly not. They have no right to try to convert Muslims and Muslims have no right to become Christians. Christians, however, do have the right to convert to Islam!
Two Baptist schools in Ajloun and Amman exist in Jordan and both have excellent reputations for the scholars they produce. The late King Hussein and Queen Noor sent their children to the Baptist school in Amman. But the Baptist schools by law must teach the Koran in addition to the Bible and they cannot seek to convert the children.
Are Christians in Jordan free? Freer than in Saudi Arabia! Freedom is relative. What Baptist could truly imagine that what Jordan refers to as religious freedom is acceptable? Real freedom must mean that one has the right to practice or even to change one’s religious beliefs according to his or her own sense of what is right.
True religious liberty extends to being free from pressure to conform to the beliefs of the majority or having those beliefs forced on you.
Curiously, Baptists’ true commitment to religious liberty has been wavering in recent years. Many Baptists see nothing wrong with a little forced Christianity in our culture. “It will do those secular humanists good to be exposed to the truth,” they reason. That may be true, but Baptists have always held that we have the right not to have somebody else’s religious beliefs crammed down our throats. Because every human being is created in the image of God, he or she has the right to choose or refuse what we hold to be truth.
Prayer in the public schools? “Absolutely!” some argue. But I have yet to meet Baptists who believe their own children should be forced to listen to Buddhist prayers should they outnumber Christians in some school districts. No Baptist I have met is agreeable to having atheism taught should atheists predominate at some point in some place.
For three very good reasons Baptists have always championed real religious freedom — not mere toleration of other religions, but genuine freedom. First, historically, Baptists experienced the pressures and persecutions of a preferred religion. For that reason, we have always been able to put ourselves in the places of ridiculed religious minorities. Having been there ourselves, it is not something we would willingly inflict on others.
Second, culturally, things change. Even if we could promote Christian beliefs by engineering favored status in social institutions and governmental agencies, who is to say that in years to come another religious strain might not supplant the church as the dominant system? We don’t want to believe that could happen; but if it did, would we want to be subjected to their beliefs being forced on us in time to come? If not, it would be wise not to establish in the present precedents they could use against us in the future.
The third reason is theological. What is the second great commandment? To love others as we love ourselves. We cannot practice the second great command of Jesus if we would impose on others what we would not wish to endure ourselves.
The kind of religious freedom Christians should practice is not mere toleration. It is more than allowing others to engage unimpeded in their own religious practices. It is the freedom from persecution, harassment and pressure to conform. It is liberty from having to endure what one does not believe to be true no matter how convinced the majority may be of its orthodoxy. That’s the religious liberty Baptists have always championed.