Monday, July 2, 2012

Free to Believe

Freedom of religion--at least as we understand it today--was not part of the plan for the first European settlers here in the New World.  The Puritans and others fully expected that there would be an established church, an official church, supported by the government.  But Baptist preacher Roger Williams, who was run out of what is now Massachusssetts, had other ideas.  And in 1636 he founded the Colony of Rhode Island.  There men and women could worship as they pleased.

Many groups flocked to the new colony in hopes opf finding refuge from relgious persecution--including fifteen Jewish familes who settled in Newport.  By 1763 they had grown in numbers sufficient to support a rabbi and the first Jewish meetinghouse, the first syangogue, in what is now the United States. 

During the Revolutionary War Touro Synagogue had hosted an important meeting of generals, which included George Washington.  Later, when Washington became president, the members of the synagogue sent him a letter of congragtulations.  Washington, in turn, sent them a letter that is considered by many to be one of the most important letters ever written in our country.  In that letter he noted his appreciation of their earlier hospitality.  And then he assured the good people of Touro Synagogue that he understood the importance of religous liberty.  "[T]he governement of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires that they who live under its protection should demean themselves good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."  (Letter from George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, August, 1790)

Like those early Jewish Americans in Rhode Island, we are grateful for the liberties and freedoms we enjoy in our nation.  We are grateful for the rights we have to worship and believe as we wish.  There is much about America to love and we want to be loyal citizens.  But we also want to be true to our beliefs as people of faith--and sometimes those things seem to be in conflict.  Does being a loyal Christian, or Jew, or Muslim or Buddhist or whatever, completely compromise ones ability to be a loyal citizen?

I think not--as long as democracy exists, as long as we have voice, as long as outrs is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" we can still be good citizens and, in Washington's words, give our nation "effectual support."  For in a democracy, good citizens are those who qyuestion, those who participate, those who think.  If we see our nation going astray, if we feel our governemtn if failing to do that which is right and good, the most loyal thing we can do is speak up and speak out.

Does that mean jamming one's views down other folks' throats?  Does it mean legislating secular laws for religous reasons?  No.  But uit does mean working out of ones religous convictions to identify and address important concerns.  It means finding common ground with others and identifying secularly based reasons for advocating for particular concerns.  The laws of the land must be bulit on secular reasons, not theological doctrine. 

We must not try to impose our religous convictions on others.  But we must bring them to bear on our own actions, our own opinions.  We can be people of faith, while at the same time recognizing that there are other people of other faiths all around us.

Have a grand Fourth!

(Picture:  Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island)

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