Thomas Jefferson and Religious Liberty

I was helping my daughter with homework this morning. We were learning a few things about Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States. I found it interesting that he dictated what he wanted on his tombstone: "Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia."

So much more could have been written, like "Third president of the United States," "Responsible for the Louisiana Purchase," etc. Anyway, it's the second item on his tombstone I want to talk about, the idea of religious freedom. I like that Jefferson authored this bill. Would I like all in America to be Christians? Of course. But I would want them to be Christians of their own accord, and without any governmental coercion.

As it stands, all religions have come into this country with equal footing. Nothing wrong with that. It just makes Christians realize that we have to work harder at getting the gospel of Christ out into our nation and the world. America is such a cafe of religions. And tolerance is the buzzword today. To say that Christ is the only way to salvation (John 14:6 and Acts 4:12) is just being narrow-minded. Not really. I'm only parroting what we hear in the secular media. Christians can have an impact on this world. But it's going to come when we truly live out the Christian life, and tell others the good news about Christ.

Back to Thomas Jefferson and Virginia. The idea of religious liberty is still very strong in Virginia today. For example, I understand that the Virginia Baptist Convention often stands at odds with the national Southern Baptist Convention over this issue of religious freedom. In this way, the Virginia Convention is a lot like the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Recently our church chose to affiliate almost exclusively with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which aligns faithfully with the national SBC.

A lot of Southern Baptists are concerned over the requirement of signing the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. I've gone back and forth over this in my own mind. To me, it's definitely a big deal. But I'm not too worried about it. Do I agree with everything in the BFM 2000? No, but I've never been asked to sign it either. Still, when you think about, signing the statement means you are buying into it as a whole. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing. When you sign something, you are really committing yourself. It's just that I'd much rather sign a Bible, than any man-made document.

On the other hand, think about the founding fathers of our country. When they signed the declaration of independence, they were really signing their own death warrants. It was treasonous to sign that document. And we're all grateful that they had the courage and the nerve to do so, aren't we? So you see, signing a statement of our faith is not necessarily a bad thing. But for those who hold religious liberty to be one of the highest ideals, I can see how caution is warranted.

However, no matter what we are asked to sign, we can all enjoy freedom in Christ; and we can all pray to the same Spirit to illumine his Word for us. Thanks to saints like Martin Luther, we are able to read God's Word in our own language. We have to maintain Christian orthodoxy at all costs, to be sure. But as to disputable matters in Scripture, we can only pray and trust that God will teach us the correct interpretation.