RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: QUO VADIS?

Having grown up under the guarantees of the Constitution of the United States of America, I pretty much took for granted the religious freedom that I experienced while growing up in a small town in the upper South/lower Midwest.  Most of my circle of friends was made up of Protestants of one shade or another; nevertheless, Roman Catholics and even some Jews were included.  Although we were exposed in our religious training to different theologies and creeds, none of these differences impeded the friendships which were formed.

No doubt, the naivete of my youth probably led me to think that most human beings operated on the basis of toleration and acceptance of diversity.  It was only through experience and extended matriculation in higher education that I became convinced that my country and its exceptional constitution had favored me with freedoms that were in short supply in most of the world.

After a career of twelve years as an associate professor at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, I took the drastic step of signing a contract with King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, where I would spend six years as an associate professor and advisor in a higher education setting that was far different than anything that I had previously experienced.  Despite some early misgivings about the wisdom of my move, I quickly settled into my new responsibilities, which centered around converting the university to the American credit-hour system.

Before traveling to Saudi Arabia, I was well aware that Islam was the ONLY religion that was permitted in the country.  However, as a Christian and as a regular at Sunday services in the United States, I did, not, perhaps, anticipate how I would feel when faced with the reality of a lack of religious freedom.

During my second year as an expatriate in the Kingdom, I discovered a Christian fellowship which met secretly on Fridays (the Muslim holy day).  Led by an Armenian-American Presbyterian pastor, who had surreptitiously entered Saudi Arabia under the guise of being an engineer, expatriates of various national origins worshiped on the McDonald/Douglas compound in Riyadh.  Eventually (after my departure from the country), Saudi authorities would learn of the fellowship, arrest its leaders and expel them from Saudi Arabia.

Arab Christians working in Saudi Arabia faced the harsh prospect of imprisonment for practicing their faith. But, despite that, I recall several Palestinians who regularly worshiped with other Christians in the fellowship.

I emerged from my six years in Saudi Arabia with a heightened awareness of the concept of religious freedom  and attendant issues.  No longer would I naively assume that the precious freedoms that I had enjoyed as an American would firmly and forever be available for all comers.  And I was deeply aware of the plight of fellow Christians, whose faith made them daily walk a precarious line between security and deprivation in Muslim countries.

Lately, I cannot help but be concerned that more and more immigrants from Muslim countries have entered the United States.  Certainly, I would wish to extend the freedoms of my country to these newcomers.  However, as an American who seeks to preserve these freedoms for all, I have a right to expect that they, in turn, value the traditions, customs and practices that have stood the test of time and made our country great. In other words, I shudder to my very foundations when I hear words of hate being shouted from mosques located in large urban centers of the United States.

With more than 2,300 mosques now operating in the United States and 80% of them promoting Wahabism, the most rigid variety of Islam, there is, indeed, cause for concern.  And, lest we forget, CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, was deeply involved in the infamous Holy Land Foundation case, in which it was conclusively proved that funds which were supposedly collected for philanthropic purposes were being funneled to HAMAS.

At the same time, our own government is now seemingly bent on causing distress for those of us who prize religious freedom by forcing provisions of the new health care legislation that many Christians find repugnant on the populace as a whole.  Let us be ever vigilant to any and all threats that could limit this precious freedom from whatever quarter they might emerge.  With an administration that does not see our country as exceptional, religious freedom may well be viewed by our leaders as something relative to politics and time and place.  As Americans, we should know better!

Religious freedom: Quo Vadis?