Christianity’s birthright not limited by our freedoms

Although I write this prior to our nation’s 234th Fourth of July celebration, I want to take advantage of its freshness in your mind to stimulate your thoughts on just what a precious gift our forefathers gave to us when they founded this country.

While it would take 13 years for them to give us our Constitution and perhaps another two years beyond that for the Bill of Rights, I believe what they gave to the world, as well as to us, is the greatest nation they have ever seen. For all its flaws, and though these be many, there has been no other country like it in all of history.

I love my country.

Of the gifts our predecessors left us, there is none that looms so large in my mind as that of religious freedom, enshrined in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Subject to perhaps even more controversy than the right of the individual to keep and bear arms (Second Amendment) and branded under the moniker the “establishment clause” by those who would seek its demise, I want to give three reasons why the First Amendment does not preclude Christian influence over government, but does preclude governmental interference of Christianity.

First of all, you need to understand the immediate context. Are you aware there is more than just one liberty enumerated within the First Amendment? Depending on how you slice it up, there are as many as six freedoms listed within this amendment. They are not all related to each other, neither have we ever understood them to be even remotely related.

My point is that since we have never understood the other freedoms to preclude influence of government, then it is patently wrong to understand this when it comes to Christianity.

If you and I have the freedom to speak openly — even critically — of government, then so should Christianity have this freedom. If the press is not to be controlled by government so that we only hear what government chooses for us to hear, but is free to publish even criticism of government, then so ought Christianity to be able.

If it is our right to assemble peaceably together and express grievances and so influence the government, such as the Tea Party movement, then even so has Christianity the right to influence. To say otherwise is to violate the immediate context.

On top of this, there is also a general context. How many of you understand why the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution? Was it because the government was concerned the average citizen might have too much influence? No, but our forefathers did understand what an oppressive government could do, and in our Declaration of Independence published just how oppressive their former government had been.

The truth is, the Bill of Rights was added to insure that self-serving individuals would not be able to steal liberty from their countrymen. Thus, the whole context of the Bill of Rights is to limit government, not the individual or Christianity.

But there is also a historical context. The problem with the detractors of Christianity is that they attempt to place the First Amendment within a context of atheism or multiculturalism, which is wrong.

We did not get religious freedom because of competition against Christianity, but because of competition from within.

The immediate religious context of the colonies was that all but one had official Christian denominations that were not only supported by, but also protected by, the government.

And this was the context of the European continent from which they came. But for a small minority within Christianity at the time, and Baptist by denomination, they would likely have continued the practice.

Furthermore, once government was no longer able to defend any particular denomination, it had the effect of introducing free-market principles into Christianity that allowed the minority denomination to explode in growth.

In closing, let me say that while it is evident that other religions — not just Christian denominations but religions — have been the recipient of American religious freedom, this remains the birthright of Christianity because it cannot be denied that Christianity is the religion of origination of this freedom as well as our nation.

As such, if Christianity’s influences ever leave this soil, even so will the freedom of religion, for that which takes her place will not be so kind.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. Contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net.