There is a lot of talk these days about religious liberty.
Some of it relates to the refusal of a county clerk in Kentucky to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples because doing so, she said, would be contrary to her religious beliefs. This came after the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee quickly seized upon the issue, lambasting the Supreme Court and praising the Kentucky clerk for "standing strong for religious liberty."
Talk of defying the court's ruling echoed bold promises made by some public officials in the 1950s and '60s resisting the court's 1954 decision ordering an end to school segregation.
Then there was the bizarre episode at a Donald Trump rally when an apparent Trump supporter ("the man from White Plains") made anti-Muslim utterances and repeated long-discredited canards about President Obama's religion and birthplace. Trump played a leading role in pushing the "birther" conspiracy theory although he says he doesn't want to discuss it any more. But he says Obama has been "absolutely horrible" on the issue of religious liberty.
Now, Trump says the first priority of a Trump administration would be to preserve and protect religious liberty. A few weeks ago some of those attending a gathering of evangelicals in Iowa took umbrage at his comments that he had never sought God's forgiveness and when he seemed to make light of communion, calling a communion wafer a "little cracker."
A few days ago, Trump showed up for a similar gathering clutching a Bible and warning that Christianity is under attack.
Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt calls religion a "hot-button issue" in the current battle for the Republican presidential nomination.
All of this comes at a time when Pope Francis is visiting the United States for the first time. The pope has come under attack by some political and media figures for his views on climate change, immigration and inequality as well as his visit to Cuba.
It underlines how politics and religion can be a volatile mixture. It is a reminder, though many today might doubt it, that for much of our history, it was impossible for a Catholic to be elected president until John F. Kennedy changed that 55 years ago.
Even though, as we are currently experiencing, there may be fierce disputes about what religious liberty really means and how it should apply, we know that it is a significant element of our legacy.
Although I am by no means an expert on the subject, I have long been interested in and intrigued by the historical strains and roots that have made religious freedom a prominent element of our national heritage. That interest has been reinforced by visits over the years to Leiden (Netherlands), Harwich (Britain) and Plymouth, Mass.
Seeking religious tolerance, a group of pilgrims left Britain for the Netherlands to evade what they considered to be oppression in Britain. They were welcomed by the authorities in the Dutch city of Leiden and lived and worked there until they were joined by others in undertaking the audacious voyage to America where they would be free to practice their religion. It is believed they prayed together at the Pieterskerk in Leiden before departing. Now, each American Thanksgiving Day, people gather in a moving ceremony in the 900-year-old church to commemorate the perseverance and commitment of those who left Leiden to become early American settlers.
After leaving Leiden in 1620, the pilgrims, numbering 102 plus crew of 30, traveled on a two-month voyage that wound up in Cape Cod rather than the colony of Virginia as originally intended. They sailed on the Mayflower, believed to have been launched from the small British coastal town of Harwich. After contending with considerable hardship, the community leaders decided that just as a spiritual covenant had marked the beginning of their congregation in Leiden, a civil covenant would govern their American community.
That covenant was the Mayflower Compact, in effect a social contract in which the settlers agreed to the compact's rules and regulations for the sake of order and survival -- combining themselves "into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation." It became the foundation for a secular government, and is often idealized as the basis of American constitutional thinking.
We would do well to recall the Mayflower Compact, with its relationship to religious liberty, and its emphasis on the need for civility in the body politic. Tolerance was at the core of what drove the Pilgrims, though tolerance is a word seldom heard in today's over-heated proclamations about religious liberty.
Religious liberty is not endangered here except by those who would hide behind it as a basis for attacking others. Religious liberty provides the right to hold your religious beliefs, not to impose your beliefs on others.
Let's not forget the Mayflower Compact and what it represents.
Commentary on 09/24/2015