LET RELIGIOUS LIBERTY RING!

Fifty years ago I stood beside my grandmother in the beautiful rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial. After studying the imposing statue of the "Gentleman Farmer from Virginia," she pointed to the words inscribed on the walls. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal …" And then she showed her young grandson the words that she considered to be just as important, "Almighty God hath created the mind free … all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion."

"We are free to worship the way we feel led," she told me. "We are free to be Baptists. There are many people in the world who don't have this freedom."

It seemed so simple back then. My preacher would speak often of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. He would tell us stories of Baptist ministers who were arrested just for preaching. The authorities would come into the church and drag them out of the pulpit. They would be whipped and thrown into prison.

Often, as he preached, I imagined the local police coming into our church and ordering him to stop. I could see my preacher raising his Bible and proclaiming that he must obey God rather than men. Then as he continued to preach the policemen would drag him out of the pulpit as he waved his Bible, urging us never to give up. I pictured my grandmother and the ladies in her mission circle meeting to pray for the preacher and bake brownies to send him in jail.

Sometimes I would see myself, a little boy, bravely ascending the pulpit and saying something like, "They can silence the messenger but they cannot silence the message!" As I became a teenager I would picture myself being dragged out of the church while all the teenage girls wept and proclaimed me a hero while I sat in prison sharing brownies with my preacher.

Yes, it seemed so simple back then. My understanding of religious freedom was that the authorities would not interfere with my preacher. He was free to say whatever God led him to say, and he could say it for as long as he desired (and he usually did!). No one could stop him — not the Methodists, or the Presbyterians, and certainly not the Catholics.

We had just elected the first Catholic president, but even JFK was on record stating that there is "absolute separation of church and state." He stated that no Catholic prelate would dictate how a Catholic president should govern any more than a Protestant minister would tell his congregation how to vote (not that any Protestant minister would ever think about telling his church how to vote).

I never even considered the possibility of religious freedom protecting someone of a different faith. My childhood was very provincial. We didn't even have a Catholic church in our town, much less a synagogue. A mosque? I don't think I knew what one was. What if an atheist wanted to preach at the depot square? No one had any problem with the street preachers who stood on their soapboxes there — but an atheist? Well, that's different. I thought religious liberty simply protected the Baptists.

Religious liberty in a pluralistic society is far from simple. Issues such as abortion, contraception, health care, homosexuality, religious instruction in school and marriage equality have created an ongoing and contentious debate. Precisely because of this religious freedom is more important than ever. A society that respects religious liberty and allows differing claims to truth to compete beside one another creates an atmosphere of openness, integrity, and respect.

Earlier Saturday, I stood once again in the beautiful rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial. We are in Washington with the youths from our church (including my granddaughter) on a Religious Liberty Trip. I pointed out the timeless words inscribed on the panels of the monument, the same words my grandmother read to her grandson almost 50 years ago. Then we sat the on steps of the memorial and talked about religious liberty. Religious faith must be a matter of conviction, not of coercion. Jesus never forced anyone to follow him. That's not too hard to understand.

I don't know if my granddaughter or any of the youths will take their grandchildren to Washington 50 years from now and talk about religious liberty. I would like to think they would. But more importantly, I hope that the bell of religious liberty will still be ringing with a clear, clarion call. "Almighty God hath created the mind free …"

Let religious liberty ring!