An Overview of American Religious Freedom

And its history

by Jonathan Baker

In order to understand how and why Americans have the rights they do today, we need to go back 400 years to consider the beginnings of these rights, and the threats to them.

The Situation in England, 1600 A.D.

 
England had become a Protestant nation in the mid-1500s but there were still many Roman Catholics in the country and the Roman Catholic pope was not willing to let England go without a fight.  He encouraged Catholics to overthrow and kill Queen Elizabeth; and the Jesuits (a religious order in direct service to the pope) in England attempted to do so.  Other Catholic kings in Europe wanted to take advantage of the situation, and the Spanish king began to prepare a naval Armada to sail to England and invade the country.  Because the Spanish king wanted to restore England to Roman Catholicism, the pope sent him money in order to help pay for the fleet.  After it sailed, it was destroyed by a storm and England was safe from other nations for the meantime.

It wasn't safe from individuals within the country though.  A Catholic named Guy Fawkes, went so far as to try to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London.  Though he didn't succeed, after all this, it's not surprising that Protestants had a fear of "popery," and of Roman Catholics trying to forcibly make them Catholic again.  King James came to the throne in 1603, and these fears and the threats that made them real, were still under the surface.

James I  (reigned 1603-1625)

Considering several aspects of his life, King James may not have been a believer, but he was a firm Protestant; to the point of being a Calvinist, the furthest thing away from Roman Catholicism. He was very interested in and knew a lot about the Bible, and so in 1603 when the Established Church bishops asked him for a conference, he authorized them to translate and publish the King James Version of the Bible.  God used this as quite a blessing for the English speaking people of the world, because at this time, and only for another century or so, Calvinism was in control of the English state church, and this can be seen in the correct translation of the doctrine of election, and other teachings in the KJV.  In addition, the translators thought the people’s understanding of what was truly in the Bible to be so important that when they added words in order that the Hebrew or Greek sentences would make more sense in English, they italicized those words.  In this way, the integrity of the Scripture was preserved, because it was clear what was added.  If you take a look at a KJV Bible, you will still see the added words italicized to this day.

However, James, like Queen Elizabeth before him, did not like public debates about how predestination or sovereign election operated and so he declared these topics were not to be discussed in church (Woolrych, 37).   

He also began to dislike Puritans, because they opposed his 1618 declaration allowing sports and dancing after church on Sundays.  In addition, they were against his choice of a Roman Catholic Spanish bride for his son Charles, who would be the future king.  Even worse, Arminians were growing rapidly in the English church.  During James reign, he was able to keep the religious turmoil in the country from getting any worse, but when Charles came to the throne it would all explode.

 
What motivated these Puritans?

First, they believed in the necessity of God's intervention in a man's life to be saved (John 6:44).  To them, faith came by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17), the Bible.  They did not take kindly to the Roman Catholic idea that by receiving the Lord's Supper and other Roman Catholic sacraments one could receive grace to be saved.  Nor did they think it was right to keep the Bible out of the people's hands (Romans 15:4).  These had been the ways things were done in the churches of the land before the Reformation, so they were suspicious of any other authority but the Bible (Woolrych, 42).  In an effort to distance themselves from the churchmen of the past, Puritan ministers even refused to wear the same elaborate priest garments, instead wearing a simple black gown. 

They had a strong zeal for the preaching of the Word, when most ministers in the country were too uneducated to (nor had they ever) put together even a simple sermon.  To make the slow climb out of the hole of Roman Catholicism into Biblical religion, regions with large Puritan influence held 'exercises,' which were meetings of neighboring ministers where the more capable tutored the less in expounding Scripture, as an audience of the public watched.  In addition, Puritan lectures were held weekly on market days, even if they needed to pay a traveling minister (paragraph, Woolrych, 35).

Because of their belief in the Biblical idea of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9), Puritans taught everyone, even women, how to read and understand what the Bible said.  As we'll see later, this will have the side-effect of creating a belief in the ability and right of all people to participate in government.  And further because Puritans believed that pastors needed to receive a call from a majority of their congregation, an early type of representative democracy existed in their worldview.  Also, Puritans originated the idea that a pastor should not hold a government office, thereby being the first to implement a separation of church and state.  And, they were the first to have secret paper ballots, and therefore limit the chance of reprisal for voting an unpopular view.

Roman Catholic teaching could never allow any of this, because priests thought it was necessary for them to interpret the Bible for the people.  They viewed the common man as permanently incapable of correctly understanding the Scripture by himself, and this is why the Roman Catholic Church did not want anyone but churchmen to read the Bible.  Priests thought of themselves as fathers to children who would never be capable of deciding for themselves what was right.  Many, even more sadly, wanted the people to stay in such an uneducated state, in order to control them and keep their own position secure.

 
English Civil War and the international situation

The Puritan movement in England strongly identified with the persecuted reformed churches in Europe, and this would cause even greater divisions within the country; ultimately escalating the internal turmoil to cause the English Civil War.

In the middle of King James’ reign, Calvinist Holland began to tear itself apart with its own bloody civil war between Arminians and Calvinists vying for control of the state church.  This was such a concern to them, not only for their desire that the nation hold their particular religious beliefs, but so that they could impose those beliefs on the Dutch people through the state church.  The Dutch officials, Calvinists themselves, moved the weight of the government against the Arminians, and therefore the Calvinist faction won.  In these days governments interfered in the church and fear of this was why Americans in the next century saw the need for separation of church and state.  The United States was the first “Christian” nation without a state church.  It was a measure to keep the government from controlling the church, not the other way around.

At the same time, Roman Catholic France was also deep in religious turmoil; Huguenots (French Calvinists) were prohibited by the French king from worshipping at all in France.  The French government began to make war on the Huguenots, and even went so far as to force Huguenot women to either convert back to Roman Catholicism or be sent to a Roman Catholic convent.  Not surprisingly, Huguenots fled France in droves.

In an effort to head off similar chaos in England, in addition to the ban on preaching about predestination or election, now no words against papists (Roman Catholics) or Puritans were allowed either.  Such measures did temporarily pacify the countryside, but of necessity they also cut short freedom in general and more importantly to Puritans, the freedom to speak the Gospel.

The problem was that the English king had an interest in keeping peace, which meant making compromises in the Established Church which unsettled and pushed Puritans even further away.  Such royal measures would only keep the peace for a time; soon nothing would hold back an explosion of conflict.  A new Bible-centered Puritan culture was emerging within England that would meet head-on the old traditional, merry, immoral, lascivious, boozing English culture. (Woolrych, 43).

Charles I  (reigned 1625-1649)
 

In 1625 King James died, and his son Charles came to the throne. 

Charles inherited control over three countries (England, Ireland, and Scotland) that were one kingdom really only in name.  English subjects had different and opposing worldviews, so unlike other European sovereigns, English kings had to win their consent, playing parties off of one another, and attempting to appease certain groups, in order to get anything done (Woolrych, 49).  Unfortunately for Charles, he had little or no ability, unlike those who came before him, to maneuver in such ways. 

On a public level, this political situation contributed greatly to a spirit of people's involvement in government, but it also had a basis in the English common-law and customs of the land.  Since 1215, English kings were required by the Magna Carta and the unwritten English Constitution to get the consent of their subject's representatives in Parliament before doing many things.  This was a rarity in Europe, as near total rule belonged to many European kings of the day. 

Adding to his problems, Charles was an Arminian, which began to cause greater and greater trouble with his Puritan subjects.  Continuing attempts made by his father to pacify the country, Charles appointed more and more Arminians to church positions and during his reign they took over the English church.  He also attempted to impose the Book of Common Prayer on Scotland, a book which contained the only prayers allowed to be prayed in church; something already accomplished in England, to Puritan chagrin.  In addition, he directed that the altar of the church be placed back to the same way it had been in past English Roman Catholic churches and enforced other church ceremonies which Puritans rightly thought were Roman Catholic.  Puritans were alarmed to see the king more and more agree with unbiblical ideas.

Since King James' previous reign, Puritans had been unhappy with an English church that made no attempt to tell out a difference between believer and unbeliever.  Dissenting congregations, churches set up by Christians who dissented from the Church of England, now began to include Puritan and new Baptist denominations at this time.  The English king made harsh penalties for attending any church other than his Church of England.  Many Puritans left the country to escape the king’s persecution and hoped to reform the Established Church that was backsliding toward Roman Catholicism by their example from afar.  One group of these was the famous Mayflower Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, in 1620.  However, they were a few decades ahead of the main Puritan migration.

The situation in Scotland and Ireland was also souring.  In Scotland, Puritans taught that there were two kingdoms, supreme and independent of each other:  the church, having a view of all spiritual matters over men, and the state, having only earthly power over a man.  The attempts to impose the Book of Common Prayer on the Scottish kirk (church) were met with a very bloody war that went on for years.  And in Ireland, Catholic and Protestant violence became impossible to control as England was embroiled in the war with the Scots.

While the religious front was getting worse, Charles began to have serious disagreements with Parliament and he dissolved the entire assembly repeatedly; one time closing down the body indefinitely.  They did not meet for several years at a time.  He felt his responsibility for the good of the people allowed him to lie to protect the country, and he did so more and more as he began to view his disagreeing subjects as his enemies (Woolrych, 49).  He began to jail nobles for refusing to 'lend' him money.  Others were imprisoned for no reason, but the king's order.  No charges were laid against them, and they would sit in jail until the king released them.  Men were also put to death, at the king's order, without breaking any laws.  Because of this the American founders made it law that a man cannot be jailed unless there is a specific charge laid against him.  He also must be informed what the charge is, and be given a fair, speedy, public trial by a jury of his peers. 

Finally, the Puritan Parliament began to raise an army and fight against King Charles and his army.  Puritans took control of the government, and had it until 1661.  These years saw a government that held steady until the prime minister-like Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell died.  With Cromwell gone, there was no clear and capable candidate to run the government.  Not wanting to descend the country into yet another civil war, Parliament asked Charles’s exiled son to return and rule over England. 

Persecution of Puritans began anew.  Now they not only faced a theologically Arminian Established Church, and an angry populace, but a king terrified of being overthrown and executed as his father before him.  In short, now they were looked upon as likely enemies of the state.  This is the backdrop in which the Puritan John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, could be imprisoned for 12 years in England’s Bedford jail because he did not have a license from the Church of England to preach to those who would hear him.

These things would have world changing consequences as English Puritans continued to flee to the shores of the future United States. 

 
A New World

The picture on the seal of the English Massachusetts Bay Colony had a Native saying the words "Come over and help us" (a parallel of Acts 16:9), and this is a large part of why Puritans flocked to the New World:  the hope of spreading the Gospel.  King James had started "harrying out of the land" those who disagreed with the state Anglican Church in the middle of his reign, but Puritans and others also wanted to leave behind all the religious wars, the worsening Established Church and a government that tried to suppress their worship.  We see a parallel here to that of the early Christians in Jerusalem who first moved out into Israel, and then into the wider world beyond to escape similar persecution (Acts 11:19).  Then, as well as at the time of the Puritans, God used such opposition as the earthly means to spread the Gospel.   

In this new land, the Mayflower Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact, an agreement to found the colony "for the glory of God, the advancement of the Christian faith and the honour of king and country."  As seen by their words, it's important to note that they still considered themselves Englishmen, and were desirous to purify the Church of England from without, by their example.  But, on the public stage, this began the first effort at self-government in colonies which were three thousand miles away from England (Bennett, 35).

Other colonies also began with freedom in mind:  Rhode Island, and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania were set up with complete religious freedom.  Maryland was a refuge for Roman Catholics and Jews, and Georgia admitted debtors as an alternative to prison sentences.  It's a peculiar fact, but at the time in Europe, a person who couldn't pay their debts was thrown into jail until he could pay.  Dissenters, or those who did not agree with the Church of England, were kept out of other European colonies, but all types were welcome in the British New World.

As the 1700s rolled around, the growing American colonies had strengthening colonial assemblies, and the English kings unwittingly set the precedent of letting them operate with little royal interference. 

In the next decades thousands of previously disinterested colonists converted to Biblical Christianity in what was called the Great Awakening.  George Whitefield and others went up and down the American colonies preaching the Gospel, and the colonists began to think about ideas, life, death, eternity, and how people should live.  A vibrant belief in Providence (God's provision for, and activity among men) spread, which continued on well into the nation's history.

Beyond religion, or rather from it, as people wanted to be good citizens and set up godly laws, the political system of the colonies became an issue of more and more interest.

In the run up to the American Revolution in the late 1760s and on, the British government ended their hands off policy with the colonies and began to make laws that the colonists felt infringed upon their guaranteed rights as Englishmen.  British authorities threw out the right to trial by jury, a public trial in some cases, and used other unfair court practices at this time.

To strengthen British control, a royal governor was sent to the New England colonies.  He enacted new taxes, shut down the free press, and imprisoned anyone who dared to publicly disagree with him.

Here, and later, the colonists made the cry for "No taxation without representation," citing their right under the unwritten English Constitution to be taxed only by their own consent or that of their representatives.  Since they did not vote to elect members of the Parliament in England, this principle had been violated.  While the British government withdrew the particular laws which were the bone of contention, Americans realized that their rights could not be secured by the unwritten English Constitution.  The tenets of this constitution had been ignored by kings and Parliament at their whim, because it was flexible enough to be abused (Bennett).  

New thoughts on Rights

At this time the fruit of more than a century of new thought on rights was influencing American Englishmen.  This greatly fueled their desire to determine and secure their rights.

Samuel Rutherford (1600?-1661)

Samuel Rutherford, the famous Scottish Puritan, wrote Lex, Rex in 1644.  The title is Latin for 'Law, King', that the Law is king, or that the rule of a king is subject first to The Rule of Law.   Rutherford argued that the king is required by the historic laws of the country to govern within the law and is not above the law.  When a ruler violates the law, he loses his authority, and it is the duty of the people is to resist such a violation.  Such a ruler, not the people, is the rebel.  This encapsulates why some Bible believing Christians, who thought a Christian should “render to Caesar” (Matthew 22), were strong participants in the English Civil War and the American Revolution.

People also began to rethink the idea, purpose, and history of government itself.  At the beginning of the Revolution, Thomas Paine, a recent immigrant from England, wrote Common Sense, a pamphlet which says three key things:

-Government would not be necessary if all people did not sin, but they do.
-Government is imperfect, because it is run by men, but as a necessary evil, it is set up only to protect the rights of the people.
-Monarchy itself is wrong because only God is to rule like a king over men and women.  Paine points to God's anger at the Israelites in asking for a king in 1 Samuel 8; pointing to the words of the Lord where He says, "they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them."   

The Bible held great authority with the colonists, and these arguments brought many to the patriot’s side.

In addition, Thomas Jefferson argued in the Declaration of Independence that man has the rights of "Life, Liberty [Freedom] and the pursuit of Happiness."  He said these cannot be taken away by any government because they are given by God, man's Creator.

Echoing Thomas Paine, Jefferson asserted that governments are set up by men in order to protect rights.  Once government stops carrying out this duty, the people may dismantle and remake it.

A new government and country

After the American Revolution succeeds, the United States is set up with some very radical principles for the time.

Men have rights which are given to them by God, and no government can take them away.  In other nations of Europe, the king was supreme above the people and he granted them only the rights he wished to grant.  Jefferson and others state that since government must rule by consent if it is to rule justly at all, the people will elect congressmen to represent them and their wishes directly, and a president to represent them as a nation.  The president is not an elected king because his term of office is only four years, and the US Constitution, the law of the land, is supreme over him.

As an effort to create a balance of power in the US government, and to ensure that the things which happened in Europe could not happen in the United States, three branches of government would hold power:  the congress, the president and the Supreme Court.  Congress controls tax money and declarations of war, to balance the president.  The president has veto power and can stop laws from being passed, unless there is a 2/3 majority of congressmen voting for a law.  The Supreme Court reviews laws made by the congress and actions of the President, if it deems them "unconstitutional," it can reverse them.  The US Constitution upholds these and other things, and is the most copied constitution in the world.

Some of the other rights it guarantees

It states that Congress shall make no law establishing a religion, (in order that a state church like the Church of England, and all the problems it created, cannot be formed).  It says congress also cannot stop the free exercise of religion, something which many pass over today.  It cannot stop the freedom of speech, nor that of the press.  The right of the people to assemble peaceably is guaranteed. This would have kept John Bunyan out of prison, as he was put in jail because the government was afraid his meetings could be a religious plot to overthrow the government. 

A person's belongings cannot be seized without a court order from a judge.  This comes into play in many parts of the world where Bibles are confiscated from Christians as well as other material governments consider “seditious.”

All people accused of a crime are to be told what they are charged with, and given a speedy trial by a jury of their peers, in public.  Any other power not mentioned stays with the people.

The current situation

There was a time when, under the influence of the United States and the power God had given to her in the world, these freedoms began to spread all across the world.  Many still exist in other countries today.  But it is startling to see how some have already been taken back, in Western countries in particular.

In England, the birthplace of so many of these freedoms, religious radio cannot be broadcast from within the country.  It is thought that people of different religious persuasions would become offended by a dogmatic broadcast of any religion.  Shortwave or satellite broadcasts are the only way that the Gospel can be sent over radio into England, because they do not originate from within the country, and cannot be subject to English law.

In Canada, it is considered hate speech to publicly say that homosexuality is a sin.  This is clearly a problem for Bible believing Christians because the Scripture directly teaches that.  For that and other reasons, the full Gospel can also not be broadcast in Canada.

In Israel, a foreigner passing out Christian tracts in the country can be imprisoned for 10 years.

Consequences and resulting principles

The effect of such a free society as the United States is to allow a spectrum of human expression; which at times can be beautiful and thought-provoking, or crass and disgusting.  Yet, unlike other countries, Americans believe that if you do not like or agree with someone, don’t watch or listen to them.  If you do not agree with pornographic films do not buy them.  If you do not agree with a certain religious radio program, don’t listen to it.  This has clearly been lost in many countries, yet still stands intact in the United States.

Such freedom is what allows people to express their true thoughts publicly on any subject without fear of reprisals.  And in many respects, it is the earthly way in which the United States has become great and kept her greatness.  It is by this position, as the beacon of freedom in the world, that God has been pleased to make her a beacon to the world of His Light, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the true Gospel.

"For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." -Habakkuk 2:14

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Sources

Woolrych, A. (2002). Britain in Revolution (1625-1660). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Woods, T.E., Jr. (2004). The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Washington, D.C.: Regenery Publishing, Inc.

Bennett W. (2006). America the Last Best Hope, Volume I. Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson Current

Schweikart, L. and Allen, M. (2004). A Patriot's History of the Unites States. New York, NY: Sentinel

Ellis, J. (2000). Founding Brothers:  the Revolutionary Generation. New York, NY: Borzoi Books.