by Bruce T. Gourley
Published May 2010
(Baptist Studies Bulletin Archives Index)
“The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever … 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 preeminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians.” So declared the Baptist evangelist and preacher John Leland in 1790, in A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia.
Recognized by many as the most prominent and influential preacher in Virginia during the early years of the new American nation, Leland and his fellow Baptists understood something that escapes the grasp of many twenty-first century Christians (including Baptists): followers of Christ should protest any government action that favors any religion over other religious faiths.
Leland stood upon the shoulders of nearly two centuries of Baptist faith, a faith that appreciated diversity and fought for religious pluralism. Widely viewed as liberals and heretics, and persecuted, tortured, and terrorized by orthodox Christians who controlled the levers of the state, Baptists remained steadfast in their quest for religious liberty for all. Playing a central role in the implementation of full religious liberty in the founding of America, Leland and Virginia Baptists on a national scale fulfilled the vision of generations of their spiritual forebears: the establishment of a secular state founded upon separation of church and state (as had been the case in Rhode Island since 1636, thanks to Roger Williams, founder of the Rhode Island colony and the first Baptist Church of America).
In the late eighteenth century, some Europeans (and some American citizens) charged that the newly-founded United States of America, by offering no reference to God in her Constitution, was an atheist nation. Two hundred years later, many of a new generation of Christians, forgetting or ignoring history, suddenly (it seemed) decided that America had been founded as a Christian nation, in the process transforming eighteenth century Deists and humanists – representative of most of America’s founding fathers – into evangelical Christians. Even John Leland fell victim to historical revisionism, pushed to the side, re-imaged as a secular humanist, or detached from his commitment to separation of church and state.
Today, the modern myth-making continues. This month’s most publicly visible reconstruction of history at the hands of agenda-driven politicians is taking place in the state of Texas. In an effort to defend the myth of America founded as a Christian nation, the Religious Right-controlled State Board of Education is on the verge of removing, from state school textbooks, the capstone of nearly two centuries of Baptist faith and witness: the constitutional separation of church and state and guarantee of full religious liberty for everyone. Not only is Baptists’ central contribution to America on the chopping block, but Thomas Jefferson stands to be muzzled. His crime? Agreeing with the freedom-loving Baptists in their crusade for separation of church and state.
More than 1,000 historians have written the Texas State Board of Education in protest. Roger Paytner, pastor of First Baptist, Austin, recently offered a good critique of what has become known as the Texas Textbook Wars.
Meanwhile, as Texas religious extremists strive to rewrite history, Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham (one of the most famous Baptists in history), thinks the government should approve his hatred of the Muslim faith. According to Graham, most Americans claim to be Christians, and since only a minority are offended by his divisive message, the government should sanction his views.
Perhaps the Religious Right myth-makers in Texas and Franklin Graham have never heard of John Leland. It is possible that they are unfamiliar with traditional Baptist beliefs. On the other hand, maybe they were introduced to the stories of Leland and the early Baptists somewhere along the way, but have chosen to reject history in favor of their own imaginations.
Lest one despair that so many contemporary Christians, including Baptists, are turning their backs (ignorantly or willfully) on Baptists’ and America’s faith heritage, atheist Michael Newdow reminds us that religious favoritism on the part of government is inconsistent with our nation’s Constitution. That an atheist has a better handle on the faith heritage of Baptists than do many Baptists, is more than a little ironic. “It’s good to know there are [some Baptists] who recognize that the issue is not “‘Belief in God versus Disbelief in God,’” Newdow wrote in a recent email correspondence, “but ‘Belief in Equality versus Belief in Favoritism for Any Religious View (including, of course, Atheism).’”
A Baptist of old could not have said it better.