In 1922, after visiting the United States for the first time, English writer G.K. Chesterton observed that “America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence. … It enunciates that all men are equal in their claim to justice, that governments exist to give them that justice, and that their authority is for that reason just. … It clearly names the Creator as the ultimate authority from whom these equal rights are derived.”
Chesterton was correct. Our rights, especially religious liberty, have been granted to us by God and enshrined in our Declaration of Independence. But those rights are being threatened by a culture that is increasingly anti-God and anti-Christian.
Let’s remember that pastors were once at the center of the American Revolution. They were leaders in the fight for religious freedom, and they often recruited men from their churches to join in that fight.
Peter Muhlenberg pastored a church in Woodstock, Virginia. He famously removed his black clerical robe at the end of a sermon to reveal an officer’s uniform in the Continental Army. Three hundred men from his church formed the 8th Virginia Regiment.
Jonas Clark led a congregation in Lexington, Massachusetts, and almost all the 70 men who made up the minutemen militia to fight against the British came from his church. On the night of Paul Revere’s famous ride, Rev. Clark reportedly told John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were hiding at his parsonage, “I have trained my men for this very hour!”
William Emerson, the grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was another “patriot pastor” in Massachusetts who was known as a strong voice for religious liberty. In 1776 he joined the Continental Army as a chaplain.
Several other pastors made up “The Black Robed Regiment,” and the clergy became the most feared band of brothers by the British because of their influence among the colonists. They were such a threat to the British Crown that the British placed bounties on their heads, often burned their parsonages and churches, and would execute wounded ministers on the battlefield rather than take them prisoners of war.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of our independence, it is good to remember these Christian heroes and the sacrifices they paid to gain the kind of religious liberty we have enjoyed, and often taken for granted, for two-and-a-half centuries.
But what once was a right to gain is now a fight to maintain.
We’ve witnessed government overreach with mandates to close churches during COVID, while liquor stores and hardware stores were deemed “essential” and allowed to remain open.
We’ve witnessed school boards stripping parental rights, intent on distributing inappropriate, and sometimes pornographic, reading material or curriculum that conflicts with parents’ Christian values.
Churches, Christian schools and Jewish synagogues have been the target of violent attacks over recent years, ranging from arson to mass shootings. Last year, the Anti-Defamation League reported a historic high number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S.—an 893% increase in the last decade.
In 2023, our own church was the target of an IRS investigation under the Biden administration because of what they believed was a violation of the Johnson Amendment, which restricts churches and other 501(c)3 organizations from promoting or endorsing political candidates. The investigation was launched due to a 2020 election sermon that I preached at Cornerstone Chapel simply detailing the two parties’ platforms and whether the principles of each platform lined up with Scripture.
While I did not explicitly endorse a particular candidate, the IRS viewed my teaching as an implicit endorsement of Donald Trump. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, we managed to maintain our tax-exempt status after paying a $197 “fine,” but it’s just another example of how religious liberty and free speech are in jeopardy.
It would not surprise me if tax exemption for churches soon became a thing of the past. And to be honest, it should become a thing of the past if pastors are reluctant to declare the whole counsel of God for fear of losing their church’s tax-exempt status. We must not make an idol out of anything, particularly when it comes to proclaiming the truth of God’s Word.
And we must not allow the “slow creep” of an anti-Judeo-Christian bias in our culture to smother the religious freedoms we have enjoyed for 250 years. It is still a battle worth fighting. But it will only be won if pastors in the pulpits are courageous, and Christians in the pews are engaged.
Jesus said in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Freedom is a gift—both spiritual freedom from the bondage of sin, and religious freedom to worship the Lord and live fearlessly for Jesus in the public square.
Ronald Reagan famously said that America was a “shining city on a hill.” He borrowed that phrase from a Puritan preacher named John Winthrop, who first used it in a sermon in 1630 to describe the promise of America as a beacon of hope for a righteous and free people. Let us do all that we can to keep that light of religious freedom shining brightly in America!
