BJC meeting highlights religious freedom threats_102003

Posted: 10/17/03

BJC meeting highlights religious freedom threats

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–Under the watchful gaze of Baptist pioneer Roger Williams, speakers at a convocation sponsored by two Baptist organizations sounded notes of serious concern about the status of religious freedom in the United States.

Several speakers noted what they consider serious threats to religious freedom during a meeting in Washington, called “Reclaiming a Historic Baptist Principle: Separation of Church and State.”

Most of the convocation's sessions were held at the historic First Baptist Church of Washington, which contains two stained-glass windows devoted to Roger Williams. After getting kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to practice Puritanism in accordance with the wishes of state leaders, Williams founded both the colony of Rhode Island and the first Baptist church in the New World.

Speaker after speaker suggested modern American political events might make Williams wonder what happened to his vision of religious liberty for all and opposition to state enforcement of religious values.

“Events of the past three years confirm that we are in the midst of a very serious re-ordering of church-state law and policies,” said Melissa Rogers, who is stepping down as director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life to become a visiting professor at Baptist-related Wake Forest Divinity School.

Rogers referred specifically to two cases involving government aid and religious institutions–the 2002 Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris ruling and the 2000 Mitchell vs. Helms ruling.

The Mitchell case affirmed a federal program that provides computers and other instructional materials to public, private and religious schools.

Regarding this case, Rogers said, “Four justices on the current Supreme Court have made it clear they would toss out one of the fundamental propositions of church-state constitutional law–the prohibition on the use of direct government subsidies for religious purposes.”

Therefore, Rogers added, “We are only one justice away from a ruling court majority that would uphold this radical departure from traditional constitutional interpretation.”

In the Zelman case, the court found constitutional an Ohio program that provided tax-funded vouchers for parents to send their children to religious schools.

Detroit minister Charles Adams warned the “sacred separation of church and state” is in dire need of defense from such court attacks.

Delivering the convocation's opening address, Adams specifically denounced President Bush's efforts to provide public money to religious institutions–such as parochial schools and church-based drug-treatment programs–to conduct social services.

“To mingle government funds with church funds is to entangle the church with government–and control the church by government,” he said, speaking on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial.

Adams is pastor of Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, a historic African-American congregation in Detroit. Although Bush has relied heavily on inner-city churches operating social ministries to push his “faith-based initiative,” Adams said those churches will regret it in the long run. For instance, he said, accepting government funds inevitably opens a private organization to a whole host of legal regulations and problems.

That, according to Adams, could eventually hurt the effectiveness of the very ministries that inspired the government support in the first place. “If you want to protect yourself against legal challenges, you're going to have to know more about the federal code than about the holy Bible,” he said.

Adams, Rogers and other speakers also argued that Christians who support church-state separation have public-relations challenges.

Rogers said that, in a public discourse on church-state issues that often pits liberal secularists against religious conservatives, the voice of Christians who support separation for theological reasons often gets drowned out.

The meeting was sponsored by the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.