Christianity & Tolerance

by Tim Frankovich, 7/04/02

Patrick Henry once said, “It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” That’s an incredible statement in and of itself, but he went on: “For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

Did you get that? The very fact that the United States of America was founded on Christianity, is the very reason that people of other religions have the freedom NOT to practice Christianity.

In recent days, it’s become popular to accuse Christianity of being “intolerant.” Those accusers assert that it’s intolerant to claim that there is only One Way to God. It’s intolerant to say other religions are wrong. And it’s the height of intolerance to try to bring those Christian ideas into the political realm.

But a totally objective viewpoint can only come to the opposite conclusion.

Our Founding Fathers made it abundantly clear that they were founding this nation on the Word of God. The documents we have from them are filled with references and quotes from the Bible. Some people try to make them all out to be nothing but a band of “deists,” but the evidence shows devout Christianity, not some ambiguous religion of convenience.

We have seen what happens when man tries to found a nation without God. We grew up hearing about the oppression in the Soviet Union. We’ve heard what it was like for people of ANY religion to try to practice their faith. Now we hear about the same persecution in China. Jail, torture, forced labor ­ even murder for the selling of internal organs: just for practicing religion - any religion.

Today, our attention has been drawn to the Middle East. There’s a whole group of nations founded on a different religion ­ a religion that claims to stand for peace and tolerance. The people there are freeÉ as long as they practice Islam. If they choose any other religion, the oppression is just as bad, and in some cases, more intense and extreme than any Communist nation. Even if you are a Muslim, but you choose a different faction of Islam other than the state-approved faction, you can be persecuted.

But hereÉ here in America, we live in a nation founded on the principles of Christianity. And one of those principles is Freedom. Liberty. The ability to make your own choices.

You don’t have to be a Christian to live here. You don’t even have to LIKE Christianity. You can be a Muslim. You can even be an atheist. And the government is not going to kick your door in and drag you off to jail.

Why? Why is the freedom to choose your religion such an ingrained part of our American culture?

It’s because that’s what Christianity is all about. Jesus brings freedom. He offers a choice. You can accept Him or reject Him. He doesn’t want anyone to be forced into one way or the other. It’s Freedom. And it’s the ultimate form of tolerance.