Religious Freedom for All

As we commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on The World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon on 9/11, we mourn the loss of the lives of innocent people. We pray for the end of religious fanaticism that generates the kind of hatred that was in the attackers. We thank God, as we know God in Jesus for our religious freedom in America. It is religious freedom for all.

We Baptists have a strong heritage of standing for religious freedom for all people. Our ancestors came out of the Church of England in the early 1600s when the English king, James I, thought he had the “divine right” to tell his subjects what their religion would be. John Smyth and Thomas Helwys stood firm for freedom as the first Baptists on English soil. They stood not just for their own freedom, but also for the freedom of all people to worship God as they choose.

Thomas Helwys, a Baptist pastor, wrote to King James, “For we do freely profess that our lord the king has no more power over their consciences [Roman Catholics] than over ours, and that is none at all. . . . For men’s religion to God is between God and themselves. The king shall not answer for it. Neither may the king be judge between God and man. Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews, or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure. This is made evident to our lord the king by the scriptures.” By “Turks” Thomas Helwys was referring to the religious group we call Muslims.

In response to Helwys’ stand for the freedom of “Roman Catholics, . . . heretics, Muslims, Jews or whatsoever” King James put him in prison in London where he died.

Our founder of our Baptist heritage took a stand and died not for religious tolerance, but for religious freedom. Tolerance says, “Our religion is the dominant religion in control, but we will tolerate other religions, allowing them to have their place.” Religious freedom says, “There will be no dominance of one religion over another. ‘For men’s religion is between God and themselves.’” Thank God for the religious freedom of all in America.