July 1 , 2004

We Are Misinformed About Religious Freedom

We are misinformed about the concept of religious freedom and its role in our nation and our government. Religious freedom has been misinterpreted to become a lever to push Christianity out of our nation, rather than using religious freedom to keep Christianity as our nation's cornerstone just as the Pilgrims and our Founders originally intended.

Do you know that the Pilgrims did not come to America for religious freedom? So often we have heard the Mayflower story about how the Pilgrims came to America for religious freedom. We've learned about how our Founding Fathers continued this tradition of equality for all religions via the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Over the past fifty years we've seen attempts to fine-tune this concept to mean our nation's government must be neutral towards religion and that our State cannot acknowledge the Christian God.

This overt emphasis on "religious freedom" and constant de-emphasis of Christianity and its role in our nation is a huge departure from what the Pilgrims had in mind when they came to America, and from what our Founding Fathers built into the fabric of our nation and its civil government.

If not for religious freedom, why then did the Pilgrims come to America? The Pilgrims had lived in Holland for 12 years prior to embarking on their Mayflower voyage to America. They had enjoyed complete religious freedom in Holland. William Bradford, Mayflower Pilgrim and Governor of the Plymouth settlement, wrote (in third person) about their time in Holland, "They grew in knowledge and other gifts and graces of the spirit of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness; and many came to them from different parts of England so that there grew up a great congregation." [1]

The Pilgrims did escape from England to Holland due to the persecution by the British government and its State Church, but once in Holland they achieved their goal of having religious freedom. If all was well in Holland, why did they uproot again and leave for America? Bradford sheds some light for us by outlining three primary factors:

1. Life in Holland was very difficult, requiring "...continual labour and hard fare and other inconveniences." Many in England desired to join their brethren in Holland and enjoy the "liberty of the gospel", yet they did not think they could endure the difficult living conditions.

2. To protect their children from the damaging influence of the immoral Dutch culture, "...the great licentiousness of the young people of the country, and the many temptations of the city, [the Pilgrim children] were led by evil example into dangerous courses...tending to dissoluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of the parents and the dishonour of God. So they saw their posterity would be in danger to degenerate and become corrupt."

3. Desire to Evangelize, "...they cherished a great hope and inward zeal of laying good foundations, or at least of making some way towards it, for the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work."

It is hard to imagine that life in Holland could have been more difficult than what the Pilgrims were going to face in America. Just getting there would be risky enough given the three-month journey through storms across the icy-cold Atlantic Ocean in a small wooden boat. During their first winter in America, the Pilgrims lost half their number to death.

Why did the Pilgrims take such a huge risk? Why did the Pilgrims endeavor to move their families to America in the face of great potential for heartache, death, trials and tribulations? It was not for religious freedom...they already had that.

Think about it! The Pilgrims lived in a country that offered complete religious freedom. Nonetheless, they realized something more was needed to establish a healthy community that could successfully grow and reproduce itself throughout future generations. Religious freedom, or even just freedom, wasn't enough by itself. They also needed a civil government and culture built on Christian principles.

There is abundant evidence of our Founding Fathers' desire to carry forward the vision of the Pilgrims, to build a nation and culture that is governed by Christian principles. Our Founder Fathers spoke often of their Great Experiment. But the Great Experiment was not to build a nation based on freedom as we learned in our history classes, but rather it was to build a free nation based upon Christian principles.

Following are some "stepping stones" along the way towards our nations founding:

1. The first official "Constitution" that was written in America was the Fundamental Order of Connecticut in 1639. It says, "Well knowing when a people are gathered together, the word of God requires that to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there should be an orderly and decent government established according to God...we enter into combination and confederation together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus."

2. America's first "united" government came in 1643 with the New England Confederation (uniting the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Plymouth, and New Haven), which reads, "We all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ."

3. On May 12, 1779 Commander-in-Chief George Washington spoke to the Delaware Indian Chiefs who had brought three Indian youths to be trained in American schools. He said, "Congress will look upon them [the Indian youths] as their own children...You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention."

4. October 17, 1780 U.S. Congress issued this official proclamation for national prayer, fasting, and thanksgiving during the Revolutionary War: "...to confess our unworthiness of the least of his favors, and to offer our fervent supplications to the God of all grace... to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth."

More than 270 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, the United States Supreme Court confirmed that the Pilgrim legacy was alive and well. In the 1892 case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, the court explained, "This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation...that this is a Christian nation." [2]

Our Founders did not intend to establish a State Church, where Christianity was the mandated religion for all citizens. But they did intend that our nation would be governed by Christian principles and that our culture would reflect Christian morals and values. When a politician, an activist, or your neighbor throws around the phrase "religious freedom," chances are they have bought the misinformed definition of that concept and are ripe for a history lesson from you about our nation's true heritage.

Let us capture a vision and commitment as large as that of our Pilgrim forefathers—to restore and then protect the work they began, and later generations succeeded in establishing, that is, our "One Nation under God," under our Christian God.

[1] William Bradford's quotations are found in: William Bradford. "Of Plymouth Plantation: Bradford's History of the Plymouth Settlement." (Bulverde, Tx: The Vision Forum in association with Mantle Ministries, 1998, original manuscript rendered into Modern English by Harold Paget, 1909), 15, 19-22.

[2] Preceding quotations are found in: David Barton, "Original Intent: The Courts, The Constitution, & Religion, Special Coral Ridge Ministries Edition." (Aledo, TX: Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., through arrangement with WallBuilder Press, 1999), 69.