Two Kingdoms, Faith, and Freedom for All

For religious believers (as the vast majority of Utahns are), this world is made up of two kingdoms: the kingdom of God (or Gods), and the kingdom of men. These kingdoms are very different. They have different languages. They have different customs. They have different laws. They have different leaders. Believers owe allegiance to both kingdoms: the spiritual and the temporal. As Isaac Backus, a Baptist leader and influential advocate of religious freedom during the Founding generation, explained, the kingdoms “are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be…

Why religious freedom? [Publius Online]

Why religious freedom? The question seems, on its face, silly. We are Americans. We value religious freedom and we have since before the Founding. Religious freedom is the first freedom protected in the Bill of Rights. It comes before the freedom of speech and assembly and before freedom of the press. It is the freedom that stands as the primary bulwark of our constitutional republic. But why? Why religious freedom? The answer is multi-faceted, but here are a few thoughts.