For such a tiny punctuation mark, a quotation mark can pack a powerful punch.
Take for example a report published in September by the United States Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission’s September 16 report on nondiscrimination laws, civil liberties, and how the two are often at odds made a strong statement about two ideas Baptists hold very closely:
“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance,” the report reads.
Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler and others quickly pointed out that the Commission used “scare quotes” around “religious liberty” and “religious liberty.” These single quotation marks indicate irony, or that the user doesn’t think the term is being used correctly.
What may not be as clear in the Commission’s 306-page report is what is the right way to use the terms. In an age when religious conviction no longer seems a valid defense, what do those words really mean? Do they mean anything at all?
Here’s where it’s easy to get scared. Where it’s easy to think that the world is suddenly topsy-turvy, upside down. What used to be universally viewed as right is now almost always wrong, at least if you want to be on the ‘right side of history.’
But instead of being scared, maybe the answer is to take charge of the redefinition of the terms in question. The world outside the church, including the Commission on Civil Rights, may not be the only ones confused.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in June offered one example of the uncertainty: Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore was questioned from the floor about how he could defend Muslims’ right to build mosques. His response cited “soul freedom,” the proudly held Baptist ideal that every person is accountable to God and is free to believe as he or she believes.
Like “religious liberty” and “religious freedom,” “soul freedom” is a layered, complicated concept. But thinking about liberty in terms of soul freedom—a God-given right and responsibility for every person—takes some of the focus off the culture’s misunderstanding of religious liberty, and the fear Christians may feel because of it.
In place of those fears, “soul freedom” reminds Christians where their ultimate hope lies.
– MDF