Does religious liberty apply to non-Christian religions?
Someone told me he had seen a Baptist writer question whether Muslim Americans qualify for religious liberty “benefits.” Hearing that was honestly surprising, since it represents a direct contradiction of our confessional document and all of its predecessors.
But beyond this there’s a broader question that’s important to consider: Must a person who believes Jesus is the only way to God defend religious freedom for Christians and non-Christians alike?
One thing we need to be clear about is that religious liberty is not a government “benefit,” but a natural and inalienable right granted by God. Often at issue is whether or not the civil state has the power to zone mosques or Islamic cemeteries or synagogues or other houses of worship out of existence because of what those groups believe. When someone makes such a claim, they are not standing up for Jesus and his gospel, but standing against them. To empower the state to command or to forbid worship is not fidelity to the Bible.
When we say—as Baptists and many other Christians always have—that freedom of religion applies to all people, Christian or not, we are not suggesting that there are many paths to God, or that truth claims are relative. We are fighting for the opposite. We are saying religion should be free from state control because we believe every person must give an account before the Judgment Seat of Christ.
Coerced Religion Is Not Christian
The government’s power is limited to the coercive power of the sword (Rom. 13:1–7). The state can do all sorts of things with that sword, some lawful and some wrong. What the state cannot do is regenerate a soul.
A religion of external conformity can happen by state decree or by cultural pressure. In fact, that’s the kind of religion we see among some who heard Jesus. They found him credible but would not follow him “so that they would not be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the glory that came from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:42–43).
If that’s all the religion you want—people who will mouth words they don’t believe—then, yes, the state can serve up whatever religion you can cobble together the votes for, just like any other government program. Just don’t call that the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us that one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3). And Scripture tells us how people come to conviction of sin and new life in Christ, not through government power but by the “open proclamation of the truth” (2 Cor. 4:2).
All the state can do is make people pretend-Christians, one birth short of salvation.
The state cannot make anyone a Christian by shutting down houses of worship, or by any other act. All the state can do is make people pretend-Christians, one birth short of salvation. Again, if all you’re concerned about is a form of godliness, then perhaps this is the option for you. But if you want to see people come to Christ, then you do it by openly preaching and debating his claims in the power of his Spirit, not by forcing people into hiding through the brute force of Uncle Sam.
Religious liberty is never an excuse for violence and crime, nor has religious liberty been so construed in American history. The United States government should fight, and fight hard, against radical Islamic jihadism. But the government should not penalize law-abiding people, especially those who are American citizens, simply for holding their religious convictions—however consistent or inconsistent, true or false, those convictions are.
Some would say, based on their reading of the Qur’an, that non-violent Muslims are inconsistent Muslims, the equivalent of cafeteria Catholics. Yet the government’s job is to punish evildoers for evildoing, not to decide who’s most theologically consistent with their professed religion.
A government that can regulate worship and conscience is a government that can do anything.
The state must also protect citizens from the state itself. A government that can regulate worship and conscience is a government that can do anything. One can’t claim to be for “limited government” while at the same time proposing that the government be in the business of regulating worship and conscience.
Gospel Power Doesn't Require Government Power
Like other freedoms, there are limits to how our freedoms can be exercised, and government has an obligation to protect its citizens from violence and harm. It should carry out this obligation faithfully. But again, the state also has an obligation to protect citizens from the state itself. And stripping a religious community of civil liberties is an act of aggression by the state against its citizens.
Moreover, the idea that religious freedom should apply only to Christians, or only to religious groups that aren’t unpopular, is not only morally wrong; it’s self-defeating. A government that can tell you a mosque or synagogue cannot be built because it is a mosque or a synagogue is a government that, in the fullness of time, will tell an evangelical church it cannot be constructed because of our claims to the exclusivity of Christ. Those voices (though a distinct minority) that claim to be Christian but seek to restrict religious freedom for others are, perhaps unknowingly, on a campaign to destroy religious freedom for all. They would set the very precedents that will be used to destroy churches, and they will vindicate their critics’ charge that the issue isn’t really about freedom at all, but about seeking government approval of one’s religion.
If Jesus is right about his gospel, we don’t need the power of bureaucrats to carry out the spiritual mission of gospel advance. Roger Williams stood up for the right of an unpopular minority in early New England—the Baptists—not to christen their babies. But he explicitly said such freedom ought to extend to “the most paganish, Jewish, Turkish” consciences as well, since we are not to extend God’s kingdom by the sword of steel but by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
There is precedent in the Bible, of course, for a religion using the state to force people to externally conform to it. But those examples are of Nebuchadnezzar and the Beast that John saw rising from the sea (Rev. 13), not the church of Jesus Christ. Religious freedom means religious freedom for everyone, including those who reject our gospel. We plead with our neighbors to be reconciled with God, as long as it is still the day of salvation (2 Cor. 5–6). We long for that change to happen the only way it can: by the Spirit’s enlivening power, not by some city council’s roll call vote.
External conformity, backed up by government power, is easier to achieve than Great Commission gospel advance. It also leads nowhere but to death.
Involved in Women’s Ministry? Add This to Your Discipleship Tool Kit.
We need one another. Yet we don’t always know how to develop deep relationships to help us grow in the Christian life. Younger believers benefit from the guidance and wisdom of more mature saints as their faith deepens. But too often, potential mentors lack clarity and training on how to engage in discipling those they can influence.
Whether you’re longing to find a spiritual mentor or hoping to serve as a guide for someone else, we have a FREE resource to encourage and equip you. In Growing Together: Taking Mentoring Beyond Small Talk and Prayer Requests, Melissa Kruger, TGC’s vice president of discipleship programming, offers encouraging lessons to guide conversations that promote spiritual growth in both the mentee and mentor.
