Nov
22
Written by:
HeartlandBaptist
11/22/2011 3:33 PM
I teach a class in my church’s Bible Institute on church history, and we recently covered the era when many left Europe to come to America to start a new life.
They were a diverse group. There were English Puritans and Anglicans, Dutch Baptists and Calvinists, German and Swedish Lutherans, Welsh Congregationalists, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, Moravian Brethren, Mennonites, Amish, Quakers, and Catholics and Jews of many nationalities.
As the years rolled on, America welcomed all sorts of people who wanted a new start. Many came for economic opportunity or to flee political persecution and some just for an adventure. But most of that first group, those we often refer to as the pilgrims and Puritans, came because of one reason: to practice true religion as they understood it from the Christian Scriptures.
And I’m thankful for them. Because of them, my Scottish and German ancestors immigrated here. And I’m thankful to God for that.
In America, I never have been forced to go to church or any other religious gathering against my will.
In America, I’ve never been afraid to share my religious beliefs.
In America, I’ve had the opportunity to study and practice my faith without interference from the government or any religious police.
We often take these things for granted. There are many countries and places in our world where there is no choice.
There are countries where to convert to another belief system can get you arrested or even executed. There are many countries where to not be of the exact religious belief of the majority means a life of poverty or persecution.
In my Ames neighborhood, there are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists and apparently several agnostics or backsliders, but the point is, I’m thankful for the religious freedom we all have.
Those early Americans, as zealous as they were in their Christian practice, knew true faith cannot be forced. As the years rolled by and different groups settled in America, a common understanding soon began to formulate, that this was a land of religious freedom.
So thank you, William Bradford, of Plymouth; thank you, John Smith, of Jamestown; and thank you, Roger Williams, of Rhode Island. Thank you to all who held their religious faith and practice so high and noble that they risked their lives to cross the ocean to found a new country.
A country where I can read my Bible and buy a new one without having to smuggle it in, a country where I can pray in private or in public, a country where on Sundays I can get up and go to church without fear of persecution, or stay home.
But, of course, I’ll be at church Sunday.
Rev. R. A. Abell
Senior Pastor
Heartland Baptist Church