By David K. Trimble

Religious Freedom Day in the United States is always a fitting occasion to consider ways to rededicate ourselves to America’s first freedom, and its grounding in human dignity given by God equally to all. 

First observed in 1993, Religious Freedom Day commemorates the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and enacted January 16, 1786, this law would later inform the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Jefferson, of course, also authored the Declaration of Independence – adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 – which spoke of human beings as “created equal” and “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Drawing on the Declaration, on November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, beginning with the famous line, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” This claim that all are created equal by God may be the most important political statement ever conceived. 

Later this year, our country will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This Religious Freedom Day, therefore, prompts two deeply entwined questions: 1) Religious freedom, why then? and 2) Religious freedom, why now? We at RFI have for years highlighted the many threats to this fundamental right in the United States and what can and should be done in response. These threats persist. But a challenge is emerging that is distinct from the range of overt free exercise challenges against which we have labored since RFI’s inception a decade ago. Alongside the ongoing legal and cultural hostility facing many Americans of faith is a growing indifference to religious freedom – almost a bewilderment as to how religious freedom can matter now in the face of so many global challenges with the economy, forced human migration, healthcare, food insecurity, and other major issues. Perhaps recalling why the American founders so valued religious freedom at the beginning of our democracy can help us answer why religious freedom remains critical now.

Americans in the founding era had serious disagreements over religion. But our founders saw religion itself — i.e., the natural human search for ultimate truth and meaning in God — as essential to the new Republic. While the concept of universal religious freedom had been around for centuries, it had never been expressed in law, nor played such a critical role in shaping an entire society. So, why did the founders think religious freedom was America’s first freedom? They believed:

• It protected a God-given, natural right and therefore was necessary for a just society.
• Religion to be an essential source of virtue and morality and its free exercise as necessary for cultivating them among their fellow citizens without violating human dignity.
• Religious citizens, when free to do so, are inclined to build institutions and serve their neighbors. Then and today, people of faith tend to build and maintain hospitals, orphanages, schools, shelters, and a long list of other institutions that benefit the whole of society, not just their own religious community.
• Religious citizens should be free to make religion-based arguments about what is moral and just in American public life. On that basis, they viewed religious free exercise as a complement to free speech and a free press, which empower citizens to develop their political views. 
• Religious freedom has the capacity to reduce conflicts that can arise amid deep religious differences. 

Given that the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is upon us, I cannot imagine a more appropriate time than 2026 to recover the foundation and purposes of America’s extraordinary free exercise tradition. 

Religious freedom is premised on the notion that people with whom we disagree, even on ultimate things, nonetheless possess a dignity equal to our own. Accordingly, we should approach our neighbors with a commitment to humility, respect, and persuasion rather than hubris, contempt, and coercion. Twenty-five years after the first Religious Freedom Day observance, more than 75 religious and civil society leaders came together at the National Archives, in the shadow of The Declaration of Independence, to sign the American Charter of Freedom of Religion and Conscience and affirm

the historic significance of the right of freedom of religion and conscience in the story of liberty in our Republic, and of its promise as a key to human dignity and flourishing and to making our world more peaceful and secure… 

With the signatories of the Charter, I want to underscore that upholding religious freedom in America remains a key source of security and stability in our fractured society. 

Fidelity to America’s first freedom does not entail a belief that truth is relative, nor does it demand ignoring disagreements with one’s opponents. But it does provide a framework for living peaceably together amid those disagreements. Article 12 of the Charter makes the point: 

The overwhelming evidence of history and social science research testifies that…protecting freedom of religion and conscience serves to promote stability and social harmony and to undermine the potential for religiously based tensions and conflicts, as well as violent extremism.

Human dignity given by God equally to all and religious liberty for all have been indispensable, twin pillars of the American experiment going back to the beginning. Preserving peace and security for all Americans in our time of turmoil, cynicism, and uncertainty will only be possible by steadfastly upholding them still. 

---

David K. Trimble is President of the Religious Freedom Institute.