GOD, GOVERNMENT AND ROGER WILLIAMS
The following are my comments on an article on January 2012 of Smithsonian magazine, related to Roger Williams and Religious Freedom.
I am in complete accord with Roger William’s thinking. For me the best is the least interference of the government on the people’s lives, mainly in all those aspect related to our way of thinking. I cannot stand those persons that try to impose on others their way of life or thinking. I even will defend them on things I oppose, and I will bring out all the possible arguments but never will try to impose my way by force on anybody.
I just came back from a Cruise through the Mexican Pacific Ocean and I had an encounter with a man and we were engaged in a discussion. My wife mentioned that living in different countries allowed us to make comparisons that led us to conclude that in the world the best country to live is the USA. He asked her the reasons for her thinking and she mentioned several good points among others the most important was FREEDOM. It doesn’t matter how many people in the world discuss this, there is no other country in the world with the freedom we enjoy here. This is the reason why this country is unique. This was the end that Roger Williams was looking for and found and practiced, and his way of thinking set out the foundation of the most precious principles in the USA Constitution that came through John Locke first and after him through Jefferson, Madison and of course John Adams. My comments on the article follow.
I know what Williams was thinking when they described him as somebody who never back in his way of thinking when he was convinced he was right. That’s happens to me, when I am convinced of something I defend my ideas with all my heart and I will put all the arguments to defend my way of thinking (when I think I am right, I am right). He left England to be free of the existing corruption of the Church brought by the State, when the State established the Church as the official one; therefore he knew what he did not want. Those who came almost at the same time, and settled the Colony in Massachusetts began to do the same thing here: the Church-State, and Williams had to leave when his ideas were not accepted; he did not want the same thing they had in England. Those in Massachusetts wanted to have the kingdom of God; they wanted to dedicate the land to God. Although Williams’ thinking about God was the same than the others, all were worshiping the God of Calvin, but they wanted the State to prevent the error in the Church. This for Williams was something impossible since God was not in charge because God among them was a particular interpretation and therefore there were different concepts of God among them and of course for those in the future. So, men were in charge not God, and because of this sooner than later some people were going to be outsiders when their thinking would differ from the majority and soon they would have to leave as they did from England. Williams saw this very clearly and many were going to be forced to a worship they maybe would not like. Also for me as was for Williams this is unacceptable because one of the fundamental characteristics of my religion (my principles, my deepest beliefs) is the free agency of man. Without free agency there is no God. God cannot take away from me my freedom to choose, because in doing so, invalidates His own laws. Nothing can be forced on me in what I believe or not. To force to accept a religion (anyone) makes that religion mute. The State is power, and those with power may force those without it to do things they do not want and therefore the power has to be regulated to avoid this monstrosity. It is therefore, imperative “to define the proper relation between government and what man has made of God… and between a FREE individual and government authority”. William referred to this when he said that the colony in Massachusetts with their principles of the State regulating the Church would bring the corruption “not of the State but of the Church.” The Colony forced him to leave in the middle of the winter and he survived! Thanks to God! Later in Narragansett he bought land from the Indians and “having, a sense of God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress” he called it PROVIDENCE, to serve as a refuge for those who were persecuted because of their thinking. Rhode Island was born and Williams saw the need of a form of government (State) and he drafted a political compact for Providence; in that he did not include the Church, or for that matter God. He did not propose a model of the Kingdom of God or to advance the God’s will as the Massachusetts Colony did. I would like to point out that one thing is God and another very different is the Religion. Williams could advance the word God there, meaning his God, without imposing his conception to others. To avoid any problems he simply did not mention anything related to spiritual aspects, and thus this government was going to be “purely mundane” and his followers agreed that “We, whose names are hereunder… do promise to subject ourselves in active and passive obedience to all such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good… only in civil things.” Here I want to transcribe the Article of Faith # 12 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.”
The survival of Rhode Island needed for Roger Williams to go to England where he obtained the Charter for Rhode Island helped by his contacts like Oliver Cromwell. This Charter authorized a democracy where they had power and authority to govern themselves, leaving the decisions related to religion in the majority knowing that that majority would maintain the State out of the Church. This led Williams to separate the material world from the spiritual world and to formulate the democratic theory of the state. This was not only extraordinary but very advanced and it is important to emphasize a fact that apparently the atheists, agnostics and modern “liberals” have the tendency to forget: This freedom is so important that it cannot be accepted that the secular world try to abolish God from the life of all those people under the government. Here now I transcribe the Article of Faith # 11 from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints: “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according with the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them to worship how, where, or what they may.”
Since the purpose of Williams was precisely to allow to all men irrespective of their beliefs or non-beliefs to worship what they may want, avoiding with that the corruption of the Church by the State, and since he did it using arguments taken from the sacred Scriptures where tolerance is taught, it cannot be accepted by anyone to be intolerant to RELIGION, as many liberals are trying in our modern world.
It is absurd to think that the State authority is received from God because there are many States and ones are contradicted by others, therefore Williams made the following statement: “I infer that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people, and the governments that they establish, have no more power nor for no longer time than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall be trust them with.”
It is absurd to think that the State authority is received from God because there are many States and ones are contradicted by others, therefore Williams made the following statement: “I infer that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people, and the governments that they establish, have no more power nor for no longer time than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall be trust them with.”
Those who did not recognize the achievements of Williams, look very much alike as the “modern liberals” since they argue that his justifications for the religious freedom derive too much from Scriptures and are the weaker for it. This is so stupid and only the fanaticism of those people allows them to express such stupidity: “the argument is good, but it would be better if it would not come from the Bible!!! These are the INTOLERANTS. And they go even further when they state that Jefferson defended the religious freedom due to political and social motives, while Williams, “the child of a theological age, the motive was wholly religious.” SO WHAT???
As you can see I am completely for the separation of the State and Church, because this goes for the liberty of man. The first amendment of the Constitution is beautiful and very clear, here it is for those who never have read it: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” There is no way that anybody insist in establishing a religion over any other or to try to denigrate Christianity to favor Atheism (another religion) or Islamism to be politically correct; or in the same way to insist that Christianity is the only religion of the USA. No, no religion is the official one, none can be. This is what we call LIBERTY, and liberty is the foundation of this Country.
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