Editorial: Is religious liberty for Christians only?

Religious liberty isn’t just enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is a core and historic Baptist belief going back more than 400 years.

Differing views of religious liberty have been at issue in culture and politics over the last several years and are still in play. From whom business owners can and can’t deny service, to prayer at school, to school funding, to immigration, to state executions, to you name it, religious liberty is involved.

Considerable financial and political capital is being spent on religious liberty concerns here and around the world. Baptists are at the forefront of these efforts. Therefore, Baptists need to pay attention to a particular critique of religious liberty coming from some self-proclaimed Christian nationalists.

Some Christian nationalists argue there is a misunderstanding today about religious liberty. They see the modern “secular” conception of religious liberty as too inclusive and unjustifiable.

This raises a question: Is religious liberty for Christians only? For Baptists to answer this and related questions requires Baptists to know themselves and their history.

Centuries-old commitment

Baptists have championed religious liberty since at least 1609. That year, John Smyth and Thomas Helwys formed General Baptists from among English Separatists living in Amsterdam.

At the time, church and state essentially were one. General Baptists, however, believed in the separation of church and state and the freedom of religious conscience. Helwys died in an English prison for these views.

Fast forward to today. Religious liberty continues to be a core Baptist belief with strong advocates.

At least two Baptist organizations advocate for religious liberty on a national level. Though often espousing contrasting views of what ensures religious liberty, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission share the same history.

The Baptist Standard also advocates for religious liberty and reports on violations of the principle wherever they occur around the world.

A Baptist definition of religious liberty

Religious liberty is important enough to Baptists that it receives its own article in the Baptist Faith and Message. According to that article, Southern Baptists understand religious liberty to mean:

• “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and he has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to his Word or not contained in it.
• “Church and state should be separate.
• “The state owes to the church [or ‘every church’] protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends.
• “In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others.
• “Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God.
• “The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends.
• “The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind.
• “The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion.
• “A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”

Religious liberty variously defined

Many, if not most, Baptists advocating for religious liberty today extend to all faiths, Christian or otherwise, the freedom referred to in the last clause above. People of all faiths have “the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”

The BJC, ERLC, Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, Baptist Standard, Baptist World Alliance and others do not believe religious liberty is for Christians only.

But Christian nationalists like Stephen Wolfe believe, at least in the United States, “the political and social privileging or exclusivity of Christianity” is justified for the purpose of “ordering the people to true religion” and “the prevention of public harm” (The Case for Christian Nationalism, p. 34, 27).

One is right to question what “true religion” and “public harm” might be.

“Early America is a resource for an American return to Christian nationalism,” Wolfe wrote (p. 36). Wolfe, noting he is Presbyterian, contends “the majority view of religious liberty in the founding era shared the same principles as the 17th century New England Puritans” (p. 430).

New England Puritans “tolerated” other denominations, but they considered Baptists—among others—to be “dissenters” and disturbers of the peace. The Puritans “denied that they conducted persecution; rather they suppressed those who … disturbed the peace of the church and the state” (p. 402-403).

One is right to question what “suppressed” and “disturbed the peace” might mean.

Religious liberty a universal right

If religious liberty—or the fullness thereof—pertains only to Christians, the next move is to define who is and is not “Christian”—or what Wolfe considers adherents of “true religion.” Baptists have not always been considered adherents of “true religion.”

Baptists who know their history know their expression of Christianity was persecuted … excuse me, suppressed throughout early America, and not just in New England and not just by Puritans.

If New England Puritans are the measure of “Christian,” however, and if certain Christian nationalists who identify with that form of Christianity have their way, what’s to keep Baptists and many other Christians—to say nothing about non-Christians—from being “suppressed” once again?

Some Christian nationalists tend toward a narrower view of religious liberty, some going so far as to deny its protections to any faith other than their brand of “Christian.” One is right to pay close attention to their language and their aims.

As for me and a host of other Baptists, religious liberty must extend to all faiths. If it does not, then any faith may be ruled out—including yours and mine.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed are those of the author.