The reactions to the the building of mosques and Muslim community centers in New York, Tennessee and elsewhere have got me thinking about the ramifications of religious freedom for our increasingly pluralistic society. Exercising the freedom of religion in this country as we do, we can't reasonably expect our society to remain religiously static. Religious freedom allows for more than the freedom to worship (or not worship) as one sees fit in one's home or private community; it also allows for religious believers to proclaim their religious beliefs in the public square through words, deeds, art, literature, architecture and other works of sacred significance. Moreover, as those who truly believe hold their beliefs to be, well, true, they tend to want to share their beliefs with others. Christians seek to make disciples of all nations. Muslims seek to spread Islam. It's therefore quite conceivable that Christianity could in time cease to be the prominent religion in the United States. Another religion might someday take its place as the most commonly practiced religion. Such is a consequence of religious freedom.
The freedom that allows for the ebb and flow of prominent religions also prevents practitioners of a religion from using the law of the land to force others to follow their ways. Those who wish to practice their religion tomorrow would be ill advised to throw out religious freedom today fearing that another religion looks poised to increase its sway within society. It does no good to diminish or remove another's freedom of religion fearing that the other will someday diminish or remove one's own. We all share the same religious freedom. Fighting against another's, we fight against our own. Those who fear a future in which they are no longer free to practice their religion ought to be out there defending religious freedom, even if it means an increase in religious pluralism.
The increased influence of Islam on our culture obviously challenges the narrative that the United States is a Judeo–Christian nation, and I suspect that challenge accounts for some of the reactions to the proposed Islamic places of worship. That narrative has more or less persisted under our framework of religious freedom, but the two are not necessary compatible. It's therefore not surprising to see the religious freedom of Muslims being called into question by those who identify the U.S. as being essentially Judeo–Christian.
Pages
