Firmly Planted Highlight: Why Religious Freedom Matters — Doug Morgan
There has been a lot of debate in the USA about whether or not this country is, or should be, a Christian nation. Many believe we should be a secular nation that has nothing to do with religion except behind the walls of our private homes or a church. But our laws, customs, and yes, even our foundations, were all based on the Bible and God’s morals and values.
The Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This means we are to have freedom of religion. The idea of separation of Church and State is not the separation of the Church from the State, but the State from the Church.
The idea that secularism was supposed to be the goal in the United States is obviously untrue; none of the Founders believed this. Even the Founders who leaned toward atheism tended to believe religion had an extraordinarily positive effect on our society. The promotion of religion and Godly values generally were considered good things by the Founding Fathers.
President John Adams wrote a letter to the Massachusetts militia saying, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government for any other.”
George Washington said in his first inaugural address, “The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality … There is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.”
Thomas Jefferson, the man who gave us the phrase “separation between church and state,” recognized “the moral branch of religion” as “how to live well and worthily in society.”
Our laws that grant us the freedom we enjoy were inspired by the Bible and the 10 Commandments. Everything from murder to robbery is forbidden because of God’s Word. We like to say we have rights or the freedom to do something. The reality is that a right is actually a freedom granted to all by God. Let us do what 1 Peter 2:16 says and live in freedom as servants of God.
Religious freedom is just one of the reasons why my family and I are involved with FPHRC. Firmly Planted Family exercises religious freedom in our communities in many different ways. Homeschool supporting classes offer families educational freedom by offering a wide variety of core and elective classes. Our new Trail Life and American Heritage Girl troops are building a Christ and community centered foundation for kids. Firmly Planted Action PAC exists to educate citizens on our nation’s founding principles, inform them about current issues impacting our rights, and inspire them to get involved in civics with the goal of restoring an active and informed citizenry.
These are just a few areas in which Firmly Planted is promoting our freedoms. All of these are intentionally done without accepting any government money because we all know that public money comes with strings. We are all families coming together and living out our faith to make a difference in our world, and God has blessed that tremendously.
As the department head of Theology here at FPHRC, my desire is to avoid simply telling students what to believe. We can believe we need to exercise our religious freedom muscle, but why do we believe that? God asks us to go beyond knowledge and strive for wisdom. When we not only know what we believe, but why we believe it, it is inevitable that we will grow in our Spiritual walk. At Firmly Planted Family, we’re going beyond homeschool support and integrating this perspective into everything we do.
Doug Morgan
FPHRC Theology Department