Mainstream Alabama Baptists  

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JANUARY 2007
(Archived Editions)

From the Executive Director ...

Baptists and other evangelicals are debating the intent of the founding fathers in passing of the First Amendment guarantee of religious liberty.  More specifically, Baptists now disagree over the desires of Isaac Backus and John Leland, two of the Baptist champions of liberty who influenced Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.  Did they want a complete separation of church and state or just a level playing field among the various Christian denominations within an overtly Christian nation?   The earliest Baptists in England and the American colonies championed religious liberty.  Roger Williams, who established the first Baptist church in the colonies (at Providence, Rhode Island), advocated absolute religious freedom for all people.  His assertion was that any citizen be free to worship as desired or to not worship or even believe in a God if he so desired.  To ensure this freedom necessitated the separation of the authority of the church and that of the state into two separate realms.  Providence Plantation became the first government to guarantee this separation.  The writings of both Jefferson and Madison demonstrate they both embraced separation of church and state, and would therefore see the First Amendment as a guarantee of that separation.

            The colonies that became the United States were at that time pervasively religious and Christianity was the overwhelmingly dominant religion.  If the First Amendment was necessary then, as it certainly was, how much more so is it necessary today!  The U.S. has become the melting pot of the world.  People of all kinds have sought out freedom, opportunity and a part of the American Dream.  As a result we have become a pluralistic society.  People have brought their religions with them.  Christianity is still the major religion, but millions and millions subscribe to other faiths.  Atheists are unashamed and vocal.  The variety of philosophical and religious opinions is amazing. 

            Should all of these people with different opinions have the same rights and equality in the eyes of the government?  Should they be taxed to help the “Faith Based Initiatives” of Christian organizations?  Should the government; national, state or local seek to promote the Ten Commandments or other religious symbols?  Should the government operate on the assumption that this is a Christian nation (a false assumption both in reality and historically)?  Or should the government be absolutely neutral in matters of religion?  Freedom and equality among all citizens demands that the state and church be separate!  If the First Amendment did not presently exist, securing such an amendment should be the first priority of all freedom loving Americans, particularly Baptists.

            On the other side of this equation, separation does not mean that the religious convictions of those elected to public service should not inform their actions and decisions.  Most of us would loathe seeing a government without the spiritual insight of its leaders.  But religions, denominations or faith coalitions should not seek to elect persons to government leadership who are committed to follow that groups agenda exclusively.  Historically, such agendas have limited the freedom of other citizens.