First Muslim elected to Congress (Part 10)

Wallbuilders
By David Barton

2. Practice Free-Market Pluralism
Because of Biblical influences and Christian civil leadership in colonial America, Americans early adopted a Free-Market approach to religion, establishing that approach in law and policy. Significantly, Christian leaders did not advocate this approach because they were indifferent to Christianity or because they believed all religions were equal; they held an opposite position on both points. However, based on Biblical teachings, Christians believed that individuals must make their own voluntary choices about their own faith, and then live with the consequences, even if that choice meant (from a Christian’s viewpoint) the difference between Heaven and Hell.
God established this approach as His modus operandi from the very beginning. In fact, after creating Adam and Eve and placing them in the Garden of Eden, He allowed them a choice – a choice that meant the difference between continued fellowship with Him or separation from Him. There was neither force, nor pressure, nor coercion applied to their decision; it was completely their voluntary choice. They chose poorly, and then lived with the consequences of their choice. God could have prevented them from choosing wrongly, but He allowed them the choice.

Moses followed the same pattern (Deuteronomy 30:19), as did Joshua (Joshua 24:15), and Elijah. In fact, in Elijah’s contest against the prophets of Baal atop Mount Carmel (I Kings 18), he offered the people a choice to follow the God of Israel, or to follow the god Baal: Elijah told the people, “How long will you waver between two views? If the Lord is God, follow Him; if Baal is god, follow him.” (v. 21) And not only did Elijah offer the people their choice, but he also permitted the followers of Baal the opportunity to pursue their religion and even encouraged them to take additional time in expressing their religion (vv. 25-29). When they finished, Elijah would present his case for the God of Israel; the people would then make their choice. Elijah – though outnumbered 450 to one (v. 22) – nevertheless believed that when eternal truth was presented and the comparison made, the people would choose correctly.

The New Testament is filled with examples following the same pattern, demonstrated first by Jesus Himself, then by the Apostles Peter and Paul, then by ministers Philip and Timothy, etc. Christians, both then and now – like the prophet Elijah and the prophets before and after him – believed that when truth was presented to people, it would eventually triumph. Therefore, all that was necessary to prevail was to present eternal truth. Sometimes it was accepted (I Thessalonians 2:13); sometimes it was rejected (II Thessalonians 2:10-12); but the individual lived with the consequences either way. Throughout the Scriptures, the key was to present the unvarnished truth; God and the Holy Spirit (not man) would do the work of validating the truth.

Following this Biblical model, the Founders believed that the truth of Christianity would prevail on its own merits – that Christianity need fear no other religion. As Thomas Jefferson explained:

Truth can stand by itself. . . . [I]f there be but one right [religion], and [Christianity] that one, we should wish to see the nine hundred and ninety-nine wandering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged; and how can we wish others to indulge it while we refuse it ourselves.

Founder Noah Webster (a devout Christian and an early judge and legislator responsible for specific language in the U. S. Constitution) similarly reminded Americans: Let us reject the spirit of making proselytes to particular creeds by any other means than persuasion.

James Madison agreed: If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to Whom it is addressed, it must be that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice – by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences; and such a spectacle must be [exciting] to all Christian nations.

Ezra Stiles (1727-1795), Christian theologian and President of Yale, specifically rejoiced in the Free-Market approach to religion produced by American Christianity: Religious liberty is peculiarly friendly to fair and generous disquisition. Here, Deism will have its full chance; nor need Libertines more to complain of being overcome by any weapons but the gentle, the powerful ones of argument and truth. Revelation [the Bible] will be found to stand the test to the ten thousandth examination.

Because of this Free-Market approach, American Christians openly received numerous religious groups to America, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and many others.
A Christian should never be fearful of any other religion. After all, if an individual has chosen Christianity, it is because he believes it superior to all others; he therefore should never be threatened by a religion that he personally considers weaker than the one he practices. In fact, if Christians fear the power of other religions over the power of their own, then they are in the wrong religion. A Christian’s confidence in his own religion, and his conviction that God will cause the truth to prevail when presented, should cause him not to exclude religious competition but rather to embrace it through America’s historic (and Biblical) Free-Market approach to religion.

Next installment: Part 11 Remember the Greater Danger