Some Christians have “freedom fatigue.” I recently heard someone say, “I’m not sure if Christians should really be so concerned about religious freedom. It seems kind of selfish, and I think it hurts our witness.” This sentiment is growing increasingly common, both from Christians who have honest questions about the importance of religious freedom, as well as from opponents of religious freedom who criticize religious freedom cases as nothing more than a “weapon” for “control.
Our political engagement should always be driven by humble faith in God and love, not by fear and resentment or a desire to “get what we deserve.” But this does not mean that seeking to preserve religious freedom is a selfish endeavor or that Christians cannot speak up when religious freedom is threatened. Quite the opposite. Religious freedom is a matter of justice and as such, we should speak up to defend it.
When considering the value of religious freedom, we should make sure we understand what religious freedom is. Luke Goodrich, a religious freedom attorney for Becket Religious Fund offers the following definition: “[R]eligious freedom is a basic issue of biblical justice, rooted in the nature of God and the nature of man.” Humans are created for relationship with God. If the government interferes with that, either by coercion or by taking away the right to worship freely and practice one’s beliefs, they are committing an injustice by demanding that we render unto Caesar what belongs to God. Desiring justice is not selfish, because justice is not reserved for select groups. Supporting religious freedom means supporting religious freedom for all.
During the confirmation hearings for Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Senator Ben Sasse made an important point: religious freedom matters because the government cannot save souls. “Government can wage wars, government can write parking tickets, but government cannot save souls,” he said. “Government’s really important… but your soul is something that the government can’t touch.”
Sasse’s observation highlights the importance of religious freedom, and also helps to show why pursuing religious freedom is not a selfish thing to do. It is not selfish to desire to live out our faith and share the gospel without hindrance. As Christians we truly believe that the gospel is the only way to be right with God, so we should fight for our freedom to share the gospel and live out our faith in the public square. It’s that simple.
This is not to say that we take religious freedom for granted when we seek to share the good news of the gospel with the people around us. It is absolutely true that the church can grow and even thrive under persecution, but that does not mean that we should hope for persecution, seek it out unnecessarily, or be ambivalent toward policies that remove religious freedom. Our hope is not in religious freedom or in government policies, but in the sovereign God of the universe, and Christians are called to joyfully trust in him regardless of circumstances. Our brothers and sisters in Christ throughout history and around the world who have been faithful in the face of persecution testify to the power of the gospel and the all-sufficiency of God.
But the fact that persecution cannot stop the gospel does not mean that persecution is desirable. Tertullian’s oft-quoted statement that “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” comes from his plea to Roman authorities that they stop persecuting Christians and allow them to practice their faith freely. Tertullian recognized—as do the martyrs crying out before the throne of God in Revelation—that religious persecution is unjust and he called for an end to this injustice.
In the United States, we have enjoyed centuries of religious freedom—this is a blessing for which we should thank God! It is also something we should seek to preserve. Goodrich writes, “The sky is not falling. America is not about to become Communist China. But real and significant threats [to religious freedom] do exist.” We should not panic in the face of threats to religious freedom, nor should we dismiss the importance of religious freedom. Furthermore, as Daniel Darling recently argued, because we live in a nation where the people have a voice, following Romans 13 means recognizing our role in maintaining religious freedom and preserving a just society.
Religious freedom recognizes what government cannot do. As Senator Sasse noted, government cannot save souls. That is something that only God can do, and if we render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s, we do not render our souls to the government, nor should we be ambivalent toward policies that keep our neighbors from hearing the gospel. Religious freedom is a matter of justice, and we must defend it.
