WTE: Religious freedom depends on self-restraint

Dr. James Tonkowich, nationally known author and longtime head of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a Washington think tank, spoke in Cheyenne last Friday. He was the keynote speaker at the sixth gathering of the Wyoming Pastors Network. His remarks are worth pondering.

Tonkowich came from Wyoming Catholic College in Lander to summarize  2,000 years of western history under three general headings: 1) from the dawn of Christianity to the middle ages, 2) from the Reformation through America’s Constitutional Convention, 3) from the 1800s and to the present.

Religious liberty was entirely unknown in the pre-Christian world. Tertullian, a Christian teacher from North Africa, was the first to articulate the principle. He wrote: “It is only just, and a privilege inherent in human nature, that every person should be able to worship according to his own convictions.” He argued this not from revelation, but from common sense.

First, human beings are by nature rational creatures. They have an internal sense of right and wrong that can be persuaded by logical argument, but not by force. Governments that punish consciences are violating an inherent human right.

Second, religion, by definition, is voluntary. Adherents willingly conform to the truth as they know it. One’s understanding may change with learning, but the desire to follow truth is human nature. That’s why coercion is the exact opposite of religion.

Third, divinity, by definition, is good. No god worthy of that title could desire harm to people. Thus, governments that hurt the faithful cannot be acting for God.

Tertullian’s arguments powerfully influenced the Roman world. Just over a century after they were first heard, Licinius, a pagan, and Constantine jointly issued the Edict of Milan (313). This granted the full and free exercise of religion to every religion without exception.

This remarkable statement said that “reverence paid to the Divinity merited our first and chief attention.” It called religious liberty “profitable to mankind in general,” “a salutary measure,” and in agreement with “right reason.”

Constantine and Licinius both saw that religious liberty “befits a well-ordered state and the tranquility of our times.” Pagan and Christian agreed that religious liberty is good government and a necessary ingredient in keeping the peace.

Sadly, this edict was violated almost as soon as the ink dried. Humankind’s will to dominate is a vice that poisons everyone who has ever lived. Christians after Constantine used power to violate religious liberty just as pagans had before him. Every time they did so, it led to the destruction of economies, societies, families and countless human lives.

No matter who violates these freedoms, the result is always the same. Whether they be pagans or Christians, Roman Catholics or Protestants, Puritans or Progressives, violators of religious freedom disrupt peace and instigate war.

Today, America stands at another turning point. New religious ideas are gaining political power. Ideas that deny the existence of God are as religious as those that affirm him. But every single person still carries the same impulse to dominate all others. Secularists are tempted to use the powers of government to impose new religious ideas, just as many other groups have tried and failed in the past.

As a warning against this abuse of power, the Edict of Milan still has relevance. “[Religious freedom] befits a well-ordered state and the tranquility of our times.” It is not a value that benefits only one side of a debate. It benefits everyone equally.

However, this principle can only govern from within. By definition, those without the power to stop violations of religious freedom can only hope that those in power stop themselves. Political, economic and social power can always be used to violate religious freedom and repeat the evils of past orthodoxies.

The only people capable of preventing these evils are those who wield these powers. They must learn from history that every group that has ever tried to curtail religious liberty for the good of mankind has failed miserably. They have only unleashed senseless death and destruction.

Good intentions do not matter any more than bad intentions. Human nature is what it is. This is the basic truth that requires self-governance. Self-governance is not the mere ability to elect one’s own external rulers. It is the hard work of governing one’s own internal desires.

Every human being is infected with the desire to dominate. The stronger one becomes, the more power he has to act on this evil desire. That means the only real protection against it is a conscience that declines to act on it. That’s self-governance.

Neither laws, nor constitutions, nor social pressures can accomplish the granting of religious freedom. Only the human being who understands the danger of violating it will desire to protect others. God grant us such people in our time.

Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle on January 31, 2020.