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Religious freedom is often termed the “first freedom.” All other liberties are derived from it, said Jeff Mateer, attorney for the Plano-based Liberty Institute and member of Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall. Baptists, who Mateer said have a rich history in championing the cause of religious liberty and the right of conscience, must confront attacks on those liberties with boldness, but with graciousness.
Baptist revolutionary patriots, and later, civil rights leaders proclaimed freedom in Christ and liberty from tyranny. But, Mateer charged, over the past three decades those liberties have been ceded, bit by bit, in the name of convenience and a desire to get along.
He said that has brought the country to a crucial tipping point in which the very concept of religious liberty is challenged. A recent example is the Supreme Court’s March hearings on the constitutionality of the federal healthcare law. That legislation requires religious institutions to provide insurance coverage for birth control, abortifacients and sterilization, forcing those institutions to subordinate their religious convictions to legislative dictates.
Mateer explained why religious liberty is the lynchpin that holds all the others in place.
“If the government can invade what you believe at the most personal level—if it can dictate to you the most personal question—it can invade everything.”
“All freedom is derived from God,” Mateer said. “There would be no freedom without that freedom.”
But how Christians respond to assaults on their faith and religious liberties can have a significant influence, maybe not in the courtroom, but in the hearts of those opposed to Christ, Mateer said.
Randy White, pastor of First Baptist Church of Katy, recalled two situations six years ago in his community west of Houston stemming from displeasure with a growing Muslim population. A local Muslim association purchased 11 acres of land to build a mosque and community center. The adjoining landowner raised pigs, animals deemed unclean in Islam. The pig owner, in response to a perceived affront, began holding pig races on his property on Friday evenings during the Muslim call to prayer.
White said the landowner was not acting in a Christlike way. Still, he said he shared the concerns of some in the community over the influence of Islam in Katy. At that time White was a member of a local ministerial alliance and said he was taken aback when the group began hosting interfaith prayer meetings that included the imams.
“That was a group of Christian pastors who wanted peace and happiness among people of all faiths,” White said.
The efforts, he thought, put Islam on par with Christianity.
“Faith needs to be sectarian. It has to have its defined lines,” White said.
To blur those lines is to renounce the distinctiveness of the gospel. That is why White left the alliance and turned down a recent invitation to attend groundbreaking ceremonies for the new mosque.
“We sometimes have to make decisions on a public scale that will offend,” he said.
On the other hand, although White believes Islam is a false religion at odds with Christianity, he said he would defend a Muslim’s right to express his beliefs.
“Baptists’ principle of religious liberty is that there is religious liberty for all. We have to protect the religious liberty of others.”
Barry Creamer, vice president for academic affairs and professor of humanities at Criswell College in Dallas, said Christians must be “good neighbors,” especially to non-Christians and immigrant groups. And not merely for evangelistic purposes, he said.
“It’s the right thing to do morally, to treat everyone with respect, regardless of whether they are Christian or not. At the point where their demands violate their respect for us, then that’s a different question,” Creamer added.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE?
Civil disobedience has been part of some religious liberty battles in American history. But should Christians, who are called to obey the authorities placed over them by God, defy those authorities?
“I believe, ‘Yes.’ These types of things are worth fighting for,” Mateer said.
But Christians should be certain of the Holy Spirit’s leading and understand the potential consequences of their acts, he warned. Mateer cited Peter and John’s refusal to abide by the Roman command to cease preaching. Their defiance landed them in jail. Jewish leadership challenged Paul’s freedom to preach as well. Instead of confronting his opponents directly, Paul famously responded, “I appeal to Rome.”
But what if it is the court itself that stands at odds with religious liberty?
Grayson Glass, Galveston Baptist Association director emeritus of missions, said he recalled two cases in which local judges tried to stymie the prayers of high school students in Texas. In 2011, just days before Medina Valley High School valedictorian Angela Hildenbrand was to give her commencement speech in which she planned to offer a prayer “in Jesus’ name,” U.S. District Judge Fred Biery invoked a temporary restraining order barring her words that referenced God.
In a similar 2000 case in Santa Fe, Texas, a judge ordered the cessation of invocations before the start of high school football games. The case was brought to court by two anonymous complainants who appealed to the separation of church and state.
Glass said he has little tolerance for the stifling of religious expression in the public square.
“No one has the right to tell me what I can and cannot do with my religion,” he said.
And though he believes Christianity to be exclusively true, Glass said he understands the constitutional liberties he enjoys protect all religious expression.
The Liberty Institute was called in by Hildenbrand’s father to try the case and won in time for her to give her speech in her own words. But if they had not, Glass said it would have been acceptable for the valedictorian to defy the judge’s order despite biblical mandates to the contrary.
“I don’t think [the judge] has the authority to do that according to our Constitution. I think sometimes we have to do that kind of thing [civil disobedience] to call attention to it.”
But how Christians “push back” when confronted by often-hostile attempts to squelch religious liberties is just as important as the fight to maintain those freedoms, Mateer emphasized.
“Our reaction is to want to fight back,” he said. “I’m not going to be weak on the issues and I’m going to fight like crazy. But in doing so I’m not going to tear down my opponent.”
The Liberty Institute, formerly the Free Market Foundation, is a non-profit law firm “dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America,” according to its website.
As general counsel for the past two and half years and a volunteer with the organization before that, Mateer has been in countless meetings in which enmity toward Christians is palpable.
“We’re in rooms with people who literally think we are crazy.”
He said the characterization of Christians as “zealots” with a “hidden agenda” ready to foist a theocratic regime upon unsuspecting Americans is endured time and again by him and his fellow Liberty attorneys.
A case in point: Roman Catholic Diocese, et. Al. vs. The City of Austin, in which the city ordered crisis pregnancy centers to post signs at the entrances of their facilities, in English and Spanish, stating, “This center does not provide abortions or refer to abortion providers. This center does not provide or refer to providers of U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved birth control drugs and medical devices.”
The city argued the importance of the message on the signs trumped the centers’ right to free speech in defining their services.
Mateer said counsel for the city was ardently pro-abortion and viewed the Liberty attorneys with disdain simply because of their faith and stand on abortion. But despite abrasive rhetoric and rude characterizations, Mateer said he had to remember to view his adversaries as Jesus would.
“I have to remember that the people opposing us are lost sinners.”
His goal with each case is not to react to hateful, illogical arguments with equally destructive language but to act graciously and professionally. In the end, his actions speak louder than his opponents preconceived ideas of Christians. Though their hearts were not changed, Mateer said he believes the Austin attorneys left the court battle with a greater respect for the Liberty attorneys simply because of how they behaved.
Criswell College blogger Winston Hottman warns, “There is nothing in our Constitution or body of laws that guarantees the prominent, culture-shaping role of Christianity in America. Inherent to our form of government is the very real possibility that Christianity will cease to play the part that it has played historically,” he said, adding that increased religious diversity will make the nation’s religious identity less “Christian.”
“The table of public discourse is an increasingly crowded one. Baptists have known what it means to be banned from the table,” Hottman said. “While we currently enjoy our place at the table, let’s remember our past and the importance of religious freedom and make sure there are plenty of open seats for the newcomers.”
