Among the freedoms we celebrate during our annual 4^th of July observance is our freedom of religion. 

Religious freedom is a lot more than religious toleration.  Toleration implies that one group holds a privileged position and tolerates minorities and dissent.  In our nation, no religion is privileged.  In America, the right of religious conscience is paramount.

Writing to a Jewish synagogue in 1790, George Washington said:

All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.  It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.  For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

George Washington and our founders knew about religious bigotry and persecution.  The American colonies had tried established religion, and by the time of the Revolution, it had left a bad taste in their mouths. 

The Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony both created established structures of state and religion.  In Connecticut, the Congregationalist Church was the established faith.  Some have called the New England colonies “Bible Commonwealths” because they structured their laws and customs according to scripture, not unlike the Sharia tradition of Islamic law practiced in some Muslim states today.

Catholics helped found Maryland; Quakers, Pennsylvania; and Virginia was an Anglican colony.  Unitarians were especially influential in Boston.  Roger Williams founded the Rhode Island colony on the principles of religious toleration and there the first Baptist congregations formed.

The problems of state authorized religions were manifold.  Several colonies persecuted and even executed Quakers and other religious minorities. 

When it came time to write a Constitution for a new nation, our founders had experienced various schemes relating religion and state, and they rejected them all in favor of the principle of freedom of religion.  Article Six of the Constitution prohibited any religious test as a requirement for public office, and the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights opens with the statement that:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  Freedom of Religion is a founding principle of our nation.

But there are some historical revisionists who continue to assert that we are “A Christian Nation.”  Their voices are especially loud on the 4^th of July, Thanksgiving Day and on the National Day of Prayer.  The first amendment’s right of free speech protects their opinions, but truth and principle do not.  The notion that this is a Christian Nation is mere “vanity and a chasing after wind,” as the Preacher of Ecclesiastes says.

We are a nation of religious freedom, not mere tolerance, as President George Washington declared to a Jewish synagogue.  Christians do not have a place of privilege from which to tolerate other faiths.  We all stand together with “equal liberties of conscience and immunities of citizenship.”

Religious freedom has made us a stronger nation.  We have welcomed the gifts, ideals and spirit of every religion and philosophy, and the conversation among us makes us wiser.  We learn from one another.  Liberty is the space that makes pluralism possible. 

It is time for Christians to give up the arrogant claims of privilege and hegemony.  Christians have no special right to public endorsement.  The Ten Commandments have no more privilege for display in public venues than the Nine Buddhist Prayers for Love or the Five Pillars of Islam.  If we desire spiritual texts in public spheres, the Parliament of the World’s Religions’ declaration Towards a Global Ethic would be a choice more in keeping with our American heritage of religious freedom.

It is time that our officially sanctioned celebrations of the National Day of Prayer be rescued from the narrow grasp of the Dobson’s Focus on the Family industry, and their practice of excluding all but what they call a “Judeo-Christian expression of the national observance,” whatever they mean by that.  In America, everyone is welcome to pray.

And whenever you have an opportunity to pray in public, at a civic club or other public event, be sensitive.  Not everyone is Christian.  It’s a small thing, but be inclusive in your prayer – using phrases like “in the Name of all that is holy” or the like, rather than “in the Name of Jesus.”  To do so is a respectful and charitable way to love your neighbor as yourself. 

Our American religious heritage is more than mere toleration.  Our American heritage is religious freedom.