By Joe Guthrie, Member Lewiston Baptist Church, Kentwood, La.
There seems to a great deal of political grandstanding of late regarding the establishment of the United States as a Christian nation. Both sides of the argument seem to have neglected the true purpose of “freedom of religion,” and how it truly benefits believers.
It was not that the United States was formed as a Christian nation, but rather a nation established by Christian men. Once again, rhetoric and emotion push aside and try to hide history and the beliefs of our founding fathers.
During colonial times, each American colony, by law, had established its own state religion. The religious intolerance and bigotry of Europe played one of the most important parts in the colonization of the New World. As a result, colonial America was left with groups that wanted religious freedom for themselves, but were unwilling to grant it to others.
Massachusetts Protestant Pilgrim Puritans fled to the New World as religious refugees, but showed no religious tolerance for Quakers in laws established in 1657. Later Roger Williams, a Baptist minister, fled Massachusetts as a result of religious persecution to establish the colony of Rhode Island.
Pennsylvania was Quaker, Connecticut was Congregationalist, and Virginia, the birthplace of so many of our founding fathers, was militantly Church of England.
Colonial Virginian laws included floggings for ministers who preached “nonconformist” sermons. Persecutions by Virginian authorities resulted in entire Baptist and Methodist congregations moving into the Carolinas and Georgia.
As the new nation began to establish and define its government, they found it necessary to address freedom of religion. The founding fathers, based on true Christian principles, were able to provide for the religious rights of all.
What was unique about American freedom of religion was that one could not be persecuted for his or her religious beliefs, nor forced into any type of theocratic government.
The founding fathers understood “free will,” and men could never in their hearts be forced to conform to any religious dictates not of their choosing. Americans have both a right to freedom of religion as well as a freedom from religion.
The founders understood that if the United States was to be established as a nation based on true Christian principles, then Christian theology, and the practice of a specific religious dogma, could not be mandated by government.
This is precisely the reason that so many fail to see the wisdom of their purpose, and describe the founding fathers as deists, when in fact they understood well the meaning of, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s.”
There are those today who would restrict entry into the United States to only those that profess Christianity.
I have a brother who worked in Saudi Arabia for several years. Upon entering into that country, his and his family’s Bibles were confiscated by the government authorities as only Islam may be practiced in Saudi Arabia.
If he would have witnessed for Christ, he would have been arrested and deported. If anyone he would have witnessed to had been converted to Christianity from Islam, that individual, according to Islamic law practiced in Saudi Arabia, would have been executed.
The true blessing that we as citizens of the United States receive from the right of religious freedom is the opportunity to follow the mandate of Christ and, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, – Matthew 28:20.
We may not be allowed to witness and teach the Gospel of Christ in other countries, but once they come to the United States, there is nothing to prevent true believers of Christ from presenting the Gospel here.
When you consider the multicultural and social makeup of what the United States has become, then it is easy to see why America has become one of the greatest missionary fields for spreading the true Gospel of Christ.
While some may argue whether or not we are a Christian nation, the reality is we are more likely a nation where the majority only call themselves Christian.
Those who wish to follow Christ should understand the true blessings of religious freedom that are to be realized in our everyday living and witnessing for Christ.
If we are to ever become a Christian nation, it will only occur by sharing the true Gospel and being ambassadors and living epistles of Christ.