Religious Freedom

The Fourth of July brings celebration of our American freedoms. It is a good time for us to think about the meaning of religious freedom. Many Sundays in church I have thanked God or heard other people thank God for “the freedom we have to be here today and worship without interference.” Religious freedom is a precious gift.

Religious freedom means freedom for all religions and for people of no religion. In America people are free to worship as Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, Mormons, or Unitarian Universalists. They are also free not to worship God. There is no religious test for holding public office in America. There are countries in the world in which it is against the law to belong to any religion other than the official religion of the country. Thank God there is no such state control of religion in America.

Maybe the hardest part of religious freedom for us is the freedom it allows for those who are atheists. Once, I visited a woman in the hospital who said, “I don’t like it when people tell me they don’t believe in God. It just makes me angry.” Why would she respond to someone who says they don’t believe in God with anger? Why not with compassion and sadness that they are missing out on a source of strength and comfort?

Anger is a protecting behavior. We tend to use it when we are afraid. This normally sweet and reasonable lady had grown up surrounded by people who believed in God and talked about God in Baptist ways. Fear gripped her heart when someone talked about there being no God.

We live in a nation that long ago decided to leave it up to individuals to decide about religious faith. The result of religious freedom in America is that we have to live with people all around us who are of a different faith than ours or of no faith. What a gift! We can listen to them and learn from their perspectives. We can lead them to freely choose faith in God, as we know God in Jesus Christ.