What ‘religious freedom’ used to mean

From the fingertips of Corey Fields comes  an objective analysis of what too many conflate to suit an extraordinary selfish agenda. A good review of history, and excellent comment on the state of the law.

At the turn of the 17th century, an English lawyer named Thomas Helwys had become part of a separatist congregation in Lincolnshire (it is to this congregation that many Baptists trace their roots). They were dissenters from the Church of England, established by King Henry VIII. In what is considered the first written call for religious freedom in the English language, Helwys wrote, “If the King’s people be obedient and true subjects, obeying all humane laws made by the King, our Lord the King can require no more: for men’s religion to God is betwixt God and themselves; the King shall not answer for it, neither may the King be judge between God and man.”

According to William M. Pinson Jr., “[King James I] had Helwys thrown in Newgate Prison, a terrible place, filled with rodents, insects, disease, filth, and hardened criminals. Helwys, a devout pastor and peaceful citizen, had done nothing violent or immoral to warrant such punishment.” He died in prison.

Across the Atlantic, a few decades later, Anglican clergyman-turned-separatist Roger Williams had developed his own religious convictions that put him at odds with the Puritans. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, you were subject to whippings or imprisonment for not attending worship or other offenses against the church. You could not vote if you were not a member of the correct church. Your taxes supported the church. Pinson writes, “The attitude of those in power in Massachusetts was that if people did not agree with the ruling saints, they could leave.” (Sound familiar?) If you chose to stay but insisted on a different way of worshiping and believing, “the consequences were severe. For example, four Quakers were hanged in the colony.”

Roger Williams (not Thomas Jefferson) was the first to speak of a “wall of separation” between church and state, and wrote that “an enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, and denies the principles of Christianity ….” Williams was threatened with exile, so he fled to modern-day Rhode Island, where he not only established the first Baptist church on American soil but chartered the first colony that guaranteed complete religious freedom for all people. He knew firsthand what religious persecution was.

Once upon a time, “religious freedom” was the cry of the oppressed minority when basic human rights were being denied them by their own government because of their religious beliefs. Today, in the United States, “religious freedom” is becoming the cry of the privileged and powerful concerning what they can rightfully deny someone else because of religious beliefs. It has been a radical shift, and it is an embarrassing travesty.

What ‘religious freedom’ used to mean