Religion and Politics
By the grace of God, I am an independent fundamental Baptist, saved by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
I’m sure you wonder why I state that so boldly on what is essentially a political website. The answer is that being a Christian, and an outspoken one, is entirely compatible with entry into any arena in American civic life.
You see, there is a fundamentally Baptist doctrine firmly embedded in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We call it the “Doctrine of Soul Liberty.” Most Americans call it “freedom of religion.”
To quote from the website of the First Baptist Church of Boston,
Words like “crusades” and “inquisition” make Christians blush with shame. They point out to us what some religious zealots have done to people throughout history. We who are Baptists, however, have tried to be consistent – from our very beginning – in standing firmly for the rights of all individuals to seek and pursue their own faith, or for each to decide to be without faith if that is the choice. We have been the recipients of religious oppression ourselves – as when our Church doors were nailed shut by the Puritan Authorities here in Boston in 1680. But we have never sought to use the power of the State to suppress others.
That doctrine was communicated to James Madison by the General Committee of the Baptists of Virginia, expressing the fear “that our religious rights were not well secured in our new Constitution of government.”
The result, as I’ve mentioned, was the first clause of our venerable First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Interestingly, it is President Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence with another group of Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut, that resulted in the oft misused phrase, “the separation of church and state.” I’ve included the whole text of the letter from which that phrase was lifted, copied from the Library of Congress:
To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
Notice that in the very letter from which the phrase “separation of Church and State” was lifted, this learned President – the very author of the Declaration of Independence – offers his own prayers to the Creator. He saw no contradiction as the highest elected official in the federal government in so doing. How can that be?
It is because the wall of separation is to protect Soul Liberty from the intrusion of the government, not to protect government from those who exercise their God given right to Soul Liberty.
To that extent then, I have no qualms about saying that I would like to see a fellow Baptist elected as our next U.S. Representative. However, I would be nearly as well pleased to see a Methodist, an Episcopalian, even a Deist such as Mr. Jefferson, elected as our next Congressman — provided that they uphold the Doctrine of Soul Liberty that is enshrined in our First Amendment (along with the other positions I’ve espoused on this website).
