Religious Liberty an Immutable Right

The Editors at the Christian Century magazine have posted an outstanding editorial about the "Immutable Right" to religious liberty in their September 7 issue. They call attention to the role of Baptists in securing that right in this country:

Back in the early 1800s it was the Baptists who felt harassed by the majority religion. They worried that their liberties were regarded by the majority—the Congregationalists—as favors that could be taken away at any time rather than as an immutable right. In a letter to President Thomas Jefferson, a group of Connecticut Baptists sought support for their conviction "that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions" and "that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbors."

It took years for the nation to sort out the meaning of religious freedom, but it eventually endorsed the vision of liberty that those early Baptists expressed.

They also deftly critique the contra-constitutional opinions of Sarah Palin, Richard Land and particularly Newt Gingrich. Gingrich contends that "there should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia." The Christian Century counters:

Gingrich expressed precisely the view that those early Baptists feared. He treats religious freedom as something that the majority can give or withhold as it sees fit—as a political bargaining chip, not an immutable right.

Gingrich misunderstands the constitutional order he thinks he is defending. The right of U.S. citizens to build a mosque has nothing to do with what Saudi Arabia chooses to do. It is a right guaranteed in the First Amendment. And in the Jeffersonian tradition, it is a right ultimately based in the freedom that God gives to all humans.