These are the words of the Reverend John Leland, a Baptist minister (A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia, 1790).
Like any statement, we should be mindful of the context. When Reverend Leland spoke of a Christian commonwealth, he was thinking of “Christian England” where the Church of England was the state church; or “Christian France” which could trace its relationship with the Catholic Church back to the second century. Because too many Christians today are unfamiliar with history we have no memory of what living in a “Christian nation” was like for the people of Europe before and after the Reformation. The churches of the magisterial reformation were state sanctioned churches. In France, the Catholic Church was the state church; in Germany, the Lutheran Church was the state church. Churches were supported by taxes and submission to the church was enforced by the power of the state. To be a Jew in Germany during Luther’s day meant oppression. To be a Protestant in Catholic France meant persecution. In fact, the so-called “Christian nations” of Europe in the 17th century were similar to the Islamic nations of today – oppressive and violent.
Although many early colonists came to America in search of religious liberty, often they were unwilling to offer religious liberty to others. The Puritans who formed the Mayflower Compact (1620) declared that they came to the shores of America “for the advancement of the Christian faith.” These pilgrims were separated from the Church of England, and had been oppressed in Great Britain. In 1656 the Puritans passed laws to expel Quakers from the colony of Massachusetts. Any Quaker who refused to leave could be put to death. On June 1, 1660 a Quaker woman named Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Commons (Timothy Shah, Religious Freedom, 2012).
During the early colonial period the Baptists were persecuted as a heretical sect by the established Anglican church in the colonies. Because Baptists refused to baptize their infants they were sometimes accused of child abuse and their children were removed from their homes. Because Baptists believed in believer baptism by immersion, those found guilty of religious non-conformance were sentenced to a colonial version of waterboarding.
When Reverend Leland denounced the concept of a Christian commonwealth in the United States he was protesting the abuses of power so common in the Christian nations of Europe, and the early colonial period in America. This Baptist minister declared,
Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians.
Reverend Leland was making a political declaration that was informed by his Christian faith, and the experience of his fellow Baptists “in the land of the free.”
In the same year that Reverend Leland was writing, President George Washington penned a letter to a Jewish Congregation in Rhode Island in which he stated, “May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Also, when hiring workmen for his Mt. Vernon estate, Washington told his overseer “If they be good workmen… they may be Mohammedans, Jews, or Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists” (emphasis mine).
As we celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in pulpits across the United States there will be many cries for a return to “Christian America.” I understand what they are saying. Many of us long for a return to the Judeo-Christian values of yesteryear. (Of course Africans and Native Americans may question those values!) Even so, we must remember that one of those Judeo-Christian values is freedom of religion. The founders of our nation envisioned a society unique in the world, a society in which all religious faiths were protected and people of different faiths could “enjoy the good will” of all citizens.
There is more to ponder. When a Christian preacher (or politician) declares for a “Christian America,” what do non-Christians hear? Are they hearing a call for a nation in which Christianity is the state religion? If so, does that mean that people of non-Christian religious will be denied basic civil rights? Will they be coerced to convert? The truth is that non-Christians fear a “Christian state,” because history teaches us that a state religion eventually becomes oppressive, coercive and an enemy to religious liberty. Many people have immigrated to the United States to escape the religious tyranny of their homeland.
So, Christians should support the religious liberties of all peoples throughout the world. Why? Because Christians are “called to freedom” a freedom that is expressed by the words “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:13-14). In other words, supporting religious liberty is the Christian thing to do.
