The Liberty Threat

The Attack on Religious Freedom in America Today

James Tonkowich

• Publisher: Saint Benedict Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781618906427
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion, Politics & State

What happened to liberty and justice for all? Americans are losing what are supposed to be constitutionally promised rights at an alarming pace. The Founding Fathers understood the overriding essentiality of religious practice unimpeded by governmental authority, but time and vast cultural change has eroded this from the consciences of modern politicians. The struggle for the right to worship freely has been present since the time of the Roman Empire. By looking at how the Ancient Christian world relates to the failures of our own Supreme Court, it is possible to see what has led to so much government interference in personal religious beliefs in the name of "equality." As we watch America teeter ever closer to the brink of moral collapse and prejudice against religion becomes even more institutionalized, one question always surfaces: How can we stop this? In The Liberty Threat James Tonkowich explores the history of Christian philosophy from the Church's infancy through the birth of America and how it influenced religious liberty. With powerful examples fresh from today's courts, Tonkowich illustrates just how the rigid separation of Church and state has created a world that is hostile to true faith. The Liberty Threat is both a chilling wake-up and a clear call to action for Christians everywhere.

CHAPTER ONE

The Ancient Christian Roots of Modern Religious Liberty

Just a Pinch of Incense

IT really didn’t seem like a big deal to most people. Just take a pinch of incense and offer it to the Roman gods. It was simple, it took very little time, and making the sacrifice marked you as a person of good standing in the community, a civic minded individual. Besides, the consequences of not performing this seemingly trivial rite of worship were exile, prison, beatings, torture, or even death.

After a simple risk/reward analysis, many Christians in third century Carthage in Roman North Africa chose to avoid legal hassles, made the prescribed sacrifice, and received a certificate of compliance. Many of the Christians, but not all. Their bishop, Thascius Cyprianus who we know as St. Cyprian, reasoned that those who offered a sacrifice, however minute and insincere, to the Roman gods committed the sin of idolatry, for they had, he said, “broken their oath to Christ.”

On August 30th, 257 AD, Cyprian was called before Paternus, the Roman proconsul. “The most sacred Emperors Valerian and Gallienus have honored me with letters,” he told Cyprian, “wherein they enjoin that all those who use not the religion of Rome, shall formally make profession of their return to the use of the Roman rites; I have made accordingly enquiry of your name; what answer do you make to me?”

“I am a Christian and Bishop,” replied Cyprian, “I know no other gods besides the One and true God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things therein; this God we Christians serve, to Him we pray day and night, for ourselves, for all mankind, for the health of the Emperors themselves.”¹ As to offering sacrifices to Roman gods, Cyprian refused and Paternus sent him into exile.

A year later, Cyprian was recalled to face another trial before the new proconsul, Galerus Maximus. “The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites,” Galerus insisted. Cyprian again refused, but this time there would be no exile. Galerius announced:

You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the pious, most sacred, and august Emperors, Valerian and Gallienus, and the most noble Cæsar Valerian, have endeavored in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; whereas then you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you: the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood. It is the will of this court, that Thascius Cyprianus be promptly beheaded.²

Cyprian was promptly taken to a nearby field where he removed his cloak, spread it on the ground, and knelt in prayer. After being blindfolded, the executioner swung his sword and “blessed Cyprian went to his death, and his body was laid out nearby to satisfy the curiosity of the pagans.”

That night, the Christians carried him away and buried him “with prayers and great pomp, with wax tapers and funeral torches.” His feast day is September 16.

Religious Conformity

As the story of St. Cyprian’s martyrdom illustrates, religious freedom was rare in the ancient world. If you were an Israelite, you worshiped the LORD God. If you were a Canaanite, you worshipped Baal. If you were an Amorite, you worshipped Molech. If you lived in Babylon in the sixth century BC, you were warned that “when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, zither, dulcimer, harp, double-flute, and all the other musical instruments, you must fall down and worship the golden statue which King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.” If you refused to worship the king’s god? “Whoever does not fall down and worship shall be instantly cast into a white-hot furnace,” and as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego discovered, this was no idle threat (Daniel 3:1-23).

If you lived in the Roman Empire as the early Christians did, you were expected to worship the gods of Rome, including “the Divine Caesar,” that is, the emperor. The Romans saw religion as the force that bound family members to one another and people to their ruler. Thus worshiping the gods was central to family, civic, and political life, invoking the blessing of the gods on family, emperor, and empire. Refusing to sacrifice was irreligious and treasonous.

Of course people in the ancient world felt free to worship gods in addition to their family and national deities. Religious cults and “mystery religions” were enormously popular in Rome, making syncretism the norm. Religious toleration and freedom of worship were extended to those who added gods to the official pantheon, but there was no religious liberty to follow one’s conscience and disregard the gods of Rome.

“Hating the Human Race”

The Jewish people were, however, an exception. The Romans, like the Greeks before them, tried to dislodge the Jews’ exclusive monotheism, but the Babylonian Captivity had taught them the lesson God intended: syncretism is not an option. “Hear, O Israel!” Moses told them centuries earlier, “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!” (Deuteronomy 6:4). They believed it and had defended it with their lives.

So to prevent unrest and rebellion in Judea, the Romans gave the Jews a pass on paying homage to Jupiter, Hera, Aphrodite, and the rest. At the same time, they never trusted the Jews and more than once subjected them to persecution.

When Christianity came on the scene, the Romans gave it a pass as a sect of Judaism. In about 60 AD, while discussing St. Paul’s imprisonment and trial, Roman Governor Festus told King Agrippa that Paul’s accusers “had some issues with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who had died but who Paul claimed was alive” (Acts 25:19). Christianity appeared to be a new twist on an old, tedious, but tolerated religion.

Then in 64 AD, a fire raged through Rome, burning three quarters of the city. The people blamed the emperor, Nero, for starting the fire to clear out a section of the city for his new palace. In truth, he probably didn’t start the fire and probably wasn’t playing the lyre (“fiddling”) as Rome burned, but he did have a political problem.

What Nero needed was a scapegoat, and Christians were the obvious choice. They were an unpopular minority and were badly misunderstood. Christians spoke about eating body and blood and were suspected of cannibalism. They called each other “brother” and “sister,” which sounded like incest. They avoided most social interaction and everyone knew they had secrets. Added to that, Christians didn’t worship the Roman gods, which made the secretive, incestuous cannibals look seditious as well. In fact, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote that when persecution of Christians began, “a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of ‘hating the human race.’”

St. Peter, the first pope, was martyred during the persecution. His next thirty-one successors—all the popes until 314 AD—were also martyred.

Nero’s persecution, though vicious and cruel, was localized in and around the city of Rome and only lasted four years (64-68 AD). Nonetheless it was a preview of things to come. For two hundred and fifty years, Christians lived with uncertainty at the whim of one government or another as waves of persecution and toleration washed back and forth over cities, provinces, and the Empire as a whole.

Today many of the world’s Christians live with the same uncertainty. We may be among them.

Religious Liberty is Born

In the face of persecution early in the third century, the Christian theologian and apologist Tertullian wrote a letter to Scapula, the proconsul at Carthage. In his letter, Tertullian presented a new idea in a world of religious conformity and coercion. Tertullian introduced the world to religious liberty.

“We are worshippers of one God,” he told Scapula. “You think that others, too, are gods, whom we know to be devils.” (Tact was apparently not Tertullian’s strong suit.) In light of those religious differences, he went on to say:

… it is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, that every man should worship according to his own convictions: one man’s religion neither harms nor helps another man. It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion—to which free will and not force should lead us—the sacrificial victims even being required of a willing mind. You will render no real service to your gods by compelling us to sacrifice. For they can have no desire of offerings from the unwilling, unless they are animated by a spirit of contention, which is a thing altogether undivine.³

Rome, argued Tertullian, got everything wrong. Rome was wrong about the nature of man. They had the idea that the state was supposed to control people’s religion, turning persecution or toleration on and off at will. Instead, he argued, religious liberty precedes even the state being “a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature.” This means that every human being is owed the freedom to believe or not believe as he or she pleases on the basis of being a part of the human race. This was by far Tertullian’s most important insight.

Rome was also wrong about the nature of religion. Romans believed forced sacrifices and, thus, insincere worship were in some way pleasing to the gods and helped the cause of religion and Empire. On the contrary, said Tertullian, coerced worship is no worship at all, but a mockery. “It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion—to which free will and not force should lead us….”

And Rome was also wrong about the nature of their gods. The gods (if they were really gods) can tell whether someone worships out of sincere faith or insincere conformity. Real gods, he wrote, “can have no desire of offerings from the unwilling, unless they are animated by a spirit of contention,” which would mean that they are not gods at all.

Rome thought ignoring the gods was a threat to family and empire. But unless religious beliefs constitute a clear and present danger, (“picks my pocket” or “breaks my leg” to use Thomas Jefferson’s words)⁴, “one man’s religion neither harms nor helps another man.” The only solution, Tertullian reasoned, is what we call religious liberty.

(Having mentioned Thomas Jefferson, let me add that Jefferson, who we’ll take up in chapter 2, read Tertullian and agreed.)

Good News from Milan

Nearly a century after the death of Tertullian, Lucius Lactantius expressed similar ideas. The difference was that while Tertullian was trying to get the ear of a proconsul, Lactantius had the ear of the emperor, Constantine.

“Religion,” he wrote, “is to be defended not by putting to death, but by dying, not by cruelty but by patience, not by an impious act but by faith…. For if you wish to defend religion by bloodshed, and by tortures, and by doing evil, it will not be defended but polluted and profaned. For nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion….”⁵

Not only must true religion be free, it must be believed from the heart: “For how will God love the worshipper if He Himself is not loved by him, or grant the petitioner whatever he asks when he draws near and offers his prayer without sincerity or reverence?”⁶

Forcing Christians who did not believe in the Roman gods to offer sacrifices was an exercise in futility. The gods, assuming they existed at all, would not have been pleased with the sacrifice and could have possibly been angered at the lack of sincerity and reverence.

Stamping out Christianity by force has never been an option because Christ is building his Church and, as he said, “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Many tried, including Emperor Diocletian (284–305 AD) who unleashed a vicious, empire-wide persecution of Christians. It didn’t work and by Constantine’s time, the impossibility of getting rid of the Church was clear even to most politicians.

The time had come for a new religious policy in the Empire, now divided between two emperors. So Western Emperor Constantine, a Christian (or at least pro-Christian) and Eastern Emperor Licinius, a pagan, issued the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. While the edict did not make Christianity “the official religion of the Roman Empire,” as some erroneously believe, it did something that in the long run was even more significant. The edict gave all people in the Roman Empire religious liberty, something that was unprecedented in the ancient world and is still rare today.

In the edict, Constantine and Licinus granted “to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred….” As of the edict anyone “who wishes to observe the Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without mole...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Praise for The Liberty Threat
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About the Author
• Contents
• Prologue
• Chapter One: The Ancient Christian Roots of Modern Religious Liberty
• Chapter Two: Sweet Land of Liberty: From the Pilgrims to the Constitution
• Chapter Three: We Hold These Truths
• Chapter Four: Storm Clouds Gathering
• Chapter Five: Reasserting Our Religious Liberty
• Afterword
• Notes
• More Great Titles from Saint Benedict ┼ Press
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