The First Freedom

By Rev. Dr. Keith D. Herron
Senior Pastor
Holmeswood Baptist Church
Kansas City, Mo.

Matthew 22:15-22; II Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; Galatians 6:(1-6) 7-16

It's Independence Day today and it's Sunday and the overlap between our citizenship and our faith is strong in our minds today.

July 4th is one of those wonderful national celebrations when our minds are drawn to the gratitude we feel for being Americans. It's our country's 228th birthday and it is right that we feel like shooting off the rockets to celebrate! There's so much that we can be grateful for today.

But particularly, we're mindful of the thousands of troops who are overseas conducting a military campaign putting them in harm's way. On this peaceful Sunday morning, we're reminded that our world is at war and that our troops are caught up in the center of that conflict.

As we remember them today, we have such mixed feelings about the war in the Middle East. Let's be mindful of them regardless of your views on the war or your political alliances as we head to the fall and the presidential elections. Let's remember they are our nation's sons and daughters, and they serve us all. Today, let's remember to say a prayer for our fellow citizens who are offering themselves in the pursuit of peace. Let's pray for the safety and the cause of peace.

I don't guess it should be much of a surprise that I would want us to think today about what happens at the intersection known as church and state. If you're wondering whether this is simply a question that's relegated to the obscurity of the dogma of the local church or theoretical political ideologues, think again! The daily news is littered with stories where these twin issues walk hand in hand.

There's the abortion question. There's the question about the Ten Commandments and their place in our government buildings. There are school vouchers to consider and legislation both for and against gay marriages. There is the open debate over whether "one nation under God" should be included in our pledge. We have the presidential election this fall with regular news stories about the religious life of both candidates.

They are not only issues played out on the national stage; they have local meaning as well.

One of the top news stories this week concerned the monitoring of churches in Johnson County, Mo., by the Mainstream Coalition who want to determine whether pastors and churches are violating federal electioneering laws by endorsing particular candidates. At stake is the church's tax-exempt status by the IRS. This action is the direct result of one of our sister Baptist churches who is pushing hard at the boundaries of church and state.

And then there's the ever-evolving story of how the First Amend-ment, the historic separation of church and state is being reconsidered and debated, even among Baptists.

Earlier this week survey results conducted by the Southern Baptist Convention revealed that 80 percent of their ministers and other Pentecostal pastors believed that "the separation of church and state in the U.S. has gone too far." That's an indication of the loss of memory about Baptist history when you consider the contributions made by Baptists to see that the First Amendment came to be adopted. In the two hundred plus years of this nation's history, Baptists have been fierce defenders of a wall that's now being slowly dismantled by Baptist criticisms.

Strange, isn't it, that the Baptists who helped build the wall of separation between church and state quibble now with its meaning? A good dose of Baptist history is ignored when we determine that the church should have more influence and control over the government. We forget about those early Christian dissidents who suffered greatly because they refused to bow down to the state-run church. We Baptists weren't the only ones who gave support to the wall of separation, but we have worked hard at the issue even when it didn't directly benefit us.

Dr. Leon McBeth, my professor of church history at Southwestern Seminary, once described his participation in a series of Protestant/Jewish Interfaith dialogues. During a recess he was introduced to one of the leading Jewish scholars who was there to present a paper. Upon learning that McBeth was a Baptist, he openly sneered saying, "And who are the Baptists that they should have a professor to teach their history?" McBeth was stunned into silence by the crassness and arrogance of the question and gave no immediate reply. That esteemed scholar didn't know his church history very well or he would have understood that the cost of freedom paid by our Baptists forbears bought freedom for all people of faith. Our motto on issues of church-state has been: If it's not freedom for all, then it's freedom for none.

Baptists have historically been deeply immersed in protecting the freedom and protection that comes with the separation of church and state. That is the freedom the government should expect from religion and also the freedom religion should expect from government.

But if we worry about protecting government from the intrusions of religion, the First Amendment works in another dynamic way by seeking to protect religion from government. Perhaps you read with interest the story in The Kansas City Star (originally written for The Washington Post) describing the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign's plan to enlist religious workers to aid their campaign. That goal, in and of itself, is not the problem. It's how they intend to recruit those volunteers that must be considered through the principles of the First Amendment.

The news story describes how the Republican Party plans to contact churches requesting their church directories so they can plunder the church's member's names and addresses for recruitment. Further, they will ask these same churches to distribute partisan issue guides to their worshipers and persuade pastors to hold voter registration drives to see that all their members are registered to vote.

This news story should be troubling to those of us who feel the First Amend-ment is worthy of our efforts to maintain. This should run against the grain of our Baptist upbringing!

Today, Holmeswood joins with three Baptist organizations for the sake of promoting the First Amendment. We are also joining approximately 300 other Baptist churches that value the First Freedom as a good way to express both our deep Christian beliefs and our commitment to freedom.

The three institutions are those this church already supports through our budget. We include them as a part of our regular missions gifts, and I want to encourage you to get to know them by going to their websites for more information.

The first organization is the Associated Baptist Press. The ABP's goal is to provide unhindered news coverage that is balanced and not controlled by the spin-meisters of denominational politics. We are well served by the ABP because the freedom of the press is a vital building block upon which freedom is based.

Second, we join the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, a group committed to articulating the need that religion and politics have their domains of influence but should be discouraged from using the other to manipulate our citizenry.

The final group is the newsmagazine called Baptists Today. Many of you subscribe to its monthly publication. It is an excellent resource for a balanced source of news that includes not only Baptist news but from other Christian groups as well.

All three groups have united together in the cause announced as the First Freedoms Project. They are calling upon churches like us to emphasize the importance of the First Amendment in our day. The great irony of freedom is that it is not free; it must be protected from leaders who would invade our times either calling upon the name of God or nationalism to justify their means.

Jesus held up a Roman coin in the company of those who pondered how politics and religion should interact. In doing so, he challenged us to offer up to our nation a commitment of citizenship that was respectful and contributed to our national good. In short, he was calling upon us to be involved in our communities as good citizens. But he never elevated our sense of nationalism over the power of the Kingdom that Christ came to bring into the world. Our commitment to nationalism is limited and informed by our chief allegiance to God.

"Render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," Jesus told them. Let's promise one another that we'll work to see that we remain faithful to the spirit of those words.

Our good friend, Dr. James Dunn, said it eloquently, "the cross never looks good wrapped in the American flag." It is a sacred duty that we Baptists never forget our rich heritage. In so doing, it's good for religion because it assures us that we will continue to enjoy our freedom of religion. But it's also good for the state in that it keeps any one religion from violating that same sense of freedom.

God is the Creator of freedom and respect. These are the things we render unto God for the greater good. Let us be faithful in doing so on this day of freedom!