Religious Liberty and the Golden Rule
Lemuel Valendez Sapian May/June 2025Navigating truth, pluralism, and compromise within the grand American experiment.
How should a Christian respond to diversity within a world of growing ideological rifts, as disagreements multiply on questions of politics, religion, philosophy, and many other areas of human thought?
For me, this is not just an abstract question—it’s personal. I was raised in a Christian home with very conservative values and approaches to theology. Nonetheless, as my exposure to the rest of society increased, I found my views challenged. Different religions, ideas, and perspectives made me question my upbringing. Through periods of doubt I struggled to maintain my connection with God, but my coming-of-age story was ultimately one highlighted by the triumph of faith in my life. Eager to find purpose and meaning within the framework of my beliefs, I became a youth evangelist and pursued a degree in history, inspired by my love for eschatology—the study of end-time events.
And so began my journey of confronting this idea of diversity. I struggled with how to make sense of it all. If God is not a God of confusion, as I so adamantly believed, why were there so many belief systems out there? Within Christianity itself, why were there thousands upon thousands of doctrinal statements? And then expanding outside of Christianity, why were there so many diverse views within the multitudes of other faith traditions?
Although grounded in my conservative Christian beliefs, I was fascinated by this pluralism. Early on, I struggled to know what it truly meant to stand up for what I believed in. What, I wondered, is the Christian’s role in all this diversity? I had been taught that if something wasn’t worth defending, it wasn’t worth believing. This led me to start defending my faith in public, and, as a young man, I believed the best defense was offense. I felt I had to attack other religions and convince others to believe as I believed, even if it meant coercing them. Wasn’t it better to drag people kicking and screaming into heaven rather than allowing them to be lost? I was even open to the idea of governments favoring Christian laws and morals.
Then I met the real Jesus, a God of compassion and mercy—One who invited people to follow Him rather than forcing them to follow Him. Soon thereafter I learned the difference between cultural and genuine Christianity. As I combed through the Bible and history, I began to realize that God’s providential hand was over events in our past. Prophecies were being fulfilled. This is where I realized the importance of religious tolerance.
The prophecies of Daniel and Revelation taught me how force and intolerance would one day be used to secure a false worship. I learned how the concept of separating church and state was not a secular notion, but rather one based on the teachings of Christ Himself, who told us, “My kingdom is not of this world.”1 With this I realized that Jesus doesn’t want an earthly throne. He doesn’t want to rule from Capitol Hill or Buckingham Palace. Jesus wants to rule in my heart.
My views began to shift radically in response to what I had read and learned from the Bible. I remained theologically conservative in my Christian beliefs, but I no longer believed the civil state was supposed to be the vehicle to push Christian values and morals. That task belonged to the church. In the United States this idea of separation of church and state recognizes both the church’s special role and the secular government’s responsibility to maintain civil order.
I’m currently in the process of entering the field of chaplaincy, which is clergy working in public organizations. Some believe my role contradicts the principle of church and state separation, or that my ability to share my unique religious views will be compromised. Others believe I should use my role as a chaplain to instill proper Christian values, regardless of someone else’s religious beliefs. The truth lies in the middle of those two extremes.
The truth is that chaplains support the free exercise of religion for individuals in public fields—such as prisons, health-care settings, or the military—who would otherwise have no clear access to it. Chaplains respect the establishment clause of our First Amendment by fielding a religiously diverse corps of chaplains, including Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and others. One can even find Hindu and humanist chaplains in various public fields.
I have learned that even from my theologically conservative perspective, this type of plurality is not to be feared. Religious toleration is a uniquely American experiment that has succeeded greatly, becoming the model for modern societies to this day. When we respect the rights of others to worship according to their consciences, we win respect for ourselves. Jesus Himself taught this to us in the golden rule, commanding us to “do to others as you would have them do to you.”2
This is why the establishment clause of our First Amendment is so vital. To place the Ten Commandments or support state-sponsored Christian prayers in our public school classrooms, for instance, would mean coercing the Christian faith on a captive audience—whether or not they are Christian. This not only violates our Constitution—it violates God’s golden rule. Christians would not like to be forced to participate in Muslim prayers or Buddhist ceremonies, so why would we enforce our own religious practices?
Jesus and His disciples conducted their ministry in a diverse environment—they worked among polytheistic Greeks and Romans, Jews, and Zoroastrians—and yet they never felt the need to enlist earthly rulers to enforce Christian views. The gospel spread, not by law, but by simple evangelism. If we are committed to Christ’s methods alone, we will shun temptations to align public policy with uniquely Christian teachings.
As President John F. Kennedy once argued: “Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”
At the heart of religious liberty is this concept of empathy and toleration—not out of a readiness to compromise truth, but rather a willingness to leave the work of convincing to the Holy Spirit rather than government fiat.
1 John 18:36, NIV. Bible texts credited to NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
2 Luke 6:31, NIV.
Article Author: Lemuel Valendez Sapian
Lemuel Valendez Sapian is a student in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, and serves in the Chaplain Corps of the U.S. Air Force. He is author of the book Not of This World: Religious Liberty for All as a Key Christian and American Value, and he oversees the religious liberty website American Sentry, www.americansentry.online.