Dr. Charlie celebrates America’s unique contribution to religious freedom and challenges all of us to want for others the liberties we desire for ourselves.
Freedom For One Is Liberty For All
All posts by Dr. Charlie Self
Election 2020 First Insights
Dr. Charlie offers hopefulness and realism as he assesses the current results of the 2020 Election. Americans on the whole vote toward the center and want to like their leaders.
Humility and Thankfulness for America
Find out why 1619 and 1620 are both important dates in our history. There is much injustice and many reasons to be thankful. Discover the tapestry of our history.
Thankful: The Complex Tapestry of American History
The United States of America is – like every person we meet and any nation we study – beautiful and broken. Her history is filled with saints and sinners, imperial oppression and unprecedented liberty. As we gather around tables and express our gratitude to God and each other, here are some paradoxical facts that are part of our historical tapestry:
- The First Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth with genuinely cordial relations with the local tribes. The Pilgrims owed their survival to Squanto and others that helped them gather, harvest, and hunt well.
- Just before the Pilgrims came ashore (1620), the colony of Virginia began importing African slaves for work in the tobacco fields (1619), inaugurating a history that only a Civil War and later Civil Rights Movement would change.
- Maryland and Pennsylvania were colonial havens for Roman Catholics and Quakers respectively, and both colonies promoted freedom of religion.
- Meanwhile in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, religious dissenters such as Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams were exiled or punished severely into the 1690s.
- The Methodists prohibited members from owning slaves as of 1757; alas, a century later this dynamic tradition was divided in to Northern and Southern branches…as were almost all denominations.
- Ellis Island processed millions of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Though many faced prejudices and obstacles assimilating into a very White and Protestant America, within a few generations, most of their descendants were celebrating the opportunities the New World had to offer.
- At the same time immigrants were gazing happily at the Statue of Liberty upon their arrival in the USA, millions of Native Americans and African Americans faced continued oppression, prejudice, and legal barriers to full inclusion into American society.
The USA continues as an experiment in virtue-based liberty, with a history of hospitality and generosity as well as nativism and xenophobia. As we rightly give thanks, let’s rededicate ourselves to building a land of access, equity, and opportunity for all.
Exilic and Influential: Church and Society in a Pluralistic Age
The American Experiment continues as a beacon of freedom in a world where billions live under oppression. Our founders and framers made many mistakes (especially retaining slavery and failing to start the road to emancipation, among others.). As the Bill of Rights was presented, the first sixteen words of the First Amendment changed history: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” For the first time among modern nations, there is no state religion and the federal government cannot interfere in freedom of conscience or faith. This is NOT a prohibition of religious influences in politics or public speech. The “wall of separation” Jefferson affirmed in later writings was protection for religious communities, not divorcing faith from society.
The Church (and other religious communities) have enjoyed much favor for over two centuries. In the last half-century, secularizing forces have sought to limit Christian influences from public institutions. Christians have felt marginalized and persecuted as the civil consensus has devolved from universal affirmations of reverence of God and moral absolutes to a fragmented, pluralistic competition among narratives and “truths.” Many academic and political elites view Christianity as belonging in the rearview mirror of history.
Biblical believers in America and the West find themselves in a similar place to the Jews who were exiles in Babylon in the 6th century BC, and later established small enclaves in Judea and throughout the Mediterranean world under multiple empires. Although limited in direct political power, Jewish communities and leaders exercised significant influence in economic, political, and social circles for centuries. The stories of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah, along with historical narratives outside the Bible all affirm these positive influences.
This current moment offers the opportunity for the Church to be a different voice than the polarized political powers or the amoral and anarchistic cultural “influencers.” Though we have less direct influence, the commissioned and empowered members of local churches can be “salt and light” in their arenas of work and play, influence and service. Just as the Jews were purified from their idolatry through divine judgment, perhaps this moment will help Christian believers recover the depth and breadth of God’s kingdom and become effective witnesses in deed and word.