Feature
The First Freedom
Why Religions Must Be Free, Not Tolerated
by William L. Saunders
In Algeria, in early 1996, Father Christian de Chergé, prior of a Trappist monastery, wrote to the leader of an insurgent group. “Brother, let me speak man to man, believer to believer. We cannot take sides. We are foreigners. We are monks. That binds us to the choice God made for us, to live a life of prayer, a simple life, one of manual labor, hospitable to everyone, especially the poor. This is our free choice and binds us to the death. I do not think God wants us to die at your hands. . . . We love everyone, you included. May the one God guide all our lives. Amen.”
Prior Christien and his brother monks had been abducted and released three years earlier, but chose to stay in Algeria. They enjoyed good relations with the community. Many local Muslims depended for their medical care on one brother, a physician. The monks did not proselytize, but sought to provide an example of Christian service, holiness, and austerity.
Still, in March, soon after Prior Christien sent his letter, the insurgents took seven monks, including the prior, hostage. In May, they slit each monk’s throat.
Protected Freedoms
From this sad episode, we see two things. First, religious belief is powerful, so powerful that men will freely give their lives in service to it. Second, it is so powerful, in fact, that other men will do all in their power to stamp it out.
At one time, it appeared that the world had learned its lesson: that religious freedom must, as a core human right, be affirmatively protected.
In 1948, the nations of the world, reeling from World War II—a war in which the Nazi and Japanese regimes had practiced slave labor and inhumane experimentation on conquered peoples and those whose lives were, in the German medical establishment’s chilling phrase, “unworthy of life”—met in New York to found the United Nations.
In order to avoid “the scourge of war,” they determined to recognize and protect basic human rights. The first document they issued was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Its Preamble states: “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Article 18 makes this more concrete: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public and private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
William L. Saunders is Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel at Americans United for Life.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
11.5—September/October 1998
Speaking the Truths Only the Imagination May Grasp
An Essay on Myth & 'Real Life' by Stratford Caldecott
31.4—July/August 2018
on the Brevity & Theology of Her Recorded Words by Judith Anderson
22.8—November/December 2009
Looking for Beauty & Justice 150 Years After Darwin’s Classic by Charles Taliaferro
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
