There is a question hiding in plain sight inside every conversation about religious liberty: Where do human rights come from? If rights are merely legal constructs, governments can revoke them at will. If they are cultural preferences, majorities can vote them away. But if they are, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, endowments from a Creator—then the discussion about freedom has always been, at its deepest level, a theological one. Read the source article from Dr. Tim Stratton at CrossExamined, which argues compellingly that religious freedom in America has never been absolute, because the very moral framework that grants it also limits it. That argument is worth taking seriously—and then pressing deeper, all the way to the gospel.
The Question Behind the Question
Dr. Stratton’s central insight is this: the same foundation that gives us religious liberty—the objective, God-given dignity of every human being—is also the foundation that limits it. No one may claim religious freedom as a license to violate the rights of another person, because those rights belong to image-bearers of God, not to the state to give or take. This is not a new idea. It is, in fact, a profoundly biblical one. Long before the Declaration of Independence was drafted, Scripture declared the inviolable worth of every human life.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” — Genesis 1:27 (ESV)
The imago Dei—the image of God stamped upon every person—is the theological bedrock of human dignity. It is not earned by virtue, conferred by citizenship, or granted by a court. It is woven into the fabric of what it means to be human. Any worldview, religious or secular, that permits the exploitation, abuse, or destruction of persons is not merely illegal under a well-ordered government; it is a direct assault on the image of God. As the apostle James warns, to curse a fellow human being is to curse one made in God’s likeness (James 3:9).
The Biblical Diagnosis: Why We Need Limits at All
If human beings were perfectly good, no limits on religious practice would ever be necessary. But Scripture is unflinching about the human condition. The prophet Jeremiah diagnoses the problem with surgical precision:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” — Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)
This is not pessimism for its own sake. It is honest anthropology. The reason any society—including a free one—must draw lines around religious practice is that human beings, left unchecked by conscience, law, and community, are capable of extraordinary evil and of dressing that evil in the language of devotion. The ancient worship of Moloch, to which Scripture itself refers (Leviticus 18:21; 2 Kings 23:10), involved the sacrifice of children. God called it an abomination. The fact that it was done in the name of religion did not sanctify it. It condemned it all the more.
Paul’s letter to the Romans traces this trajectory from creation to corruption: humanity, knowing God through what has been made, suppressed that truth and exchanged the worship of the Creator for the worship of created things (Romans 1:18–25). The result is not merely intellectual error. It is moral catastrophe—a disordering of love, justice, and human relationship. Sin does not just break rules; it breaks people. And a society built on a broken anthropology will eventually justify the breaking of other people in the name of its gods, whatever those gods happen to be.
Christ: The True Ground of Human Dignity
Here is where the Christian faith does not merely agree with the natural-law argument for limited religious freedom—it surpasses it. The Declaration of Independence appeals to a Creator. Christianity names that Creator. The God who endows human beings with unalienable rights is the God who, in the person of Jesus Christ, became one of those human beings.
“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” — Colossians 2:9–10 (ESV)
The Incarnation is the ultimate declaration of human dignity. God did not merely legislate on behalf of image-bearers from a distance. He became one, taking on flesh, entering into suffering, and submitting to death—not because human beings deserved it, but because they were worth it to him. Jesus did not come to abolish human dignity; he came to restore it. Every person he healed, every outcast he welcomed, every sinner he forgave was a living proclamation that human beings matter infinitely to God.
Furthermore, Jesus himself drew the clearest possible line between genuine freedom and its counterfeits. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,” he said, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32, ESV). True freedom is not the absence of all constraint. True freedom is alignment with reality—with the truth about God, about human beings, and about how we are meant to live together. A religion that demands the destruction of the innocent is not freedom. It is slavery to something darker than any government ever could be.
Living It Out: How Christians Engage This Moment
For followers of Jesus, the conversation about religious liberty is not merely political. It is discipleship. Here is how Christians can engage faithfully:
1. Defend religious freedom—for everyone
Christians who have benefited from robust religious liberty protections must be among the loudest defenders of that liberty for others, including those with whom we deeply disagree. We do not protect freedom only for ourselves. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matthew 7:12, ESV). Principled advocacy for liberty is a form of neighbor-love.
2. Distinguish belief from practice with clarity and charity
Dr. Stratton’s distinction between the freedom to believe and the freedom to practice is one Christians should understand well. We do not police hearts—only God does (1 Samuel 16:7). But we are right to insist that no sincerely held belief grants anyone the right to harm another image-bearer of God. Hold this line without contempt for those who hold different beliefs.
3. Ground every argument in human dignity, not tribal preference
When Christians engage public debates about religion and law, we must be careful to argue from principle, not merely from preference. The case against practices that harm innocent people is not “we are Christian and we disapprove.” It is: “every human being bears the image of God, and that image must be protected.” This is an argument anyone can evaluate, and it reflects the universal scope of the gospel.
4. Model the freedom Christ gives
The most powerful apologetic for true religious liberty is a community of people who are genuinely free—free from bitterness, free from the need to dominate, free to love enemies and serve strangers. The church, at its best, is that community. “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13, ESV).
The Gospel: Where True Freedom Begins
Every argument about religious liberty eventually runs into the same wall: human beings are not good enough to be trusted with unlimited freedom, and no law is strong enough to make us so. This is not a counsel of despair. It is the beginning of the gospel.
We are, each of us, sinners—people who have suppressed the truth about God, who have violated the dignity of others, and who deserve the just consequences of a holy God’s judgment. But God, rich in mercy, did not leave us there. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who lived the life we could not live, died the death we deserved to die, and rose from the grave on the third day, defeating sin and death for all who would trust in him (Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4).
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” — Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
The freedom the gospel offers is not merely political or philosophical. It is personal and eternal. It is the freedom of a forgiven conscience, a renewed heart, and a restored relationship with the God in whose image we were made. No government can grant this freedom. No court can revoke it. It comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
If you have never received that freedom, today is the day to ask for it. Repent—turn from the self-directed life—and place your trust in Jesus Christ, the risen Lord who holds all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). He does not merely protect human dignity from a distance. He restores it, from the inside out, one redeemed life at a time.
