Americans have always disagreed about the practices of religious belief. In 17th-century New England, the free-thinking Roger Williams challenged the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for restricting what Williams called “soul freedom,” by which he meant the right for an individual soul to worship God as he or she saw fit without interference from other parties. The Puritans, led by a pastor named John Cotton, argued against Williams, saying that the people needed to remain united in their walk with Christ and that introducing division on matters of personal belief would jeopardize the life of the community. The dispute turned out to be irresolvable, with Williams contending earnestly for the freedom of the individual person to practice their faith, and Cotton insisting on the necessity of unity in the Body of Christ. The debate “ended” with Williams being banished from Massachusetts and settling in a new part of New England that would become the colony of Rhode Island, an eventual haven for religious dissidents.

Even in its earliest days, America was a place riven by debates over religious liberty, with communities quite literally fracturing and beginning anew over the issue. Though we are today arguing about issues like same-sex marriage and employer-provided healthcare, the underlying question—how do we balance the individual’s liberty to practice their religious beliefs freely with the need to maintain a coherent common life for all Americans?—is still a part of our life in the United States.

How do we balance the individual’s liberty to practice their religious beliefs freely with the need to maintain a coherent common life for all Americans?

Indeed, we are still using many of the same terms that were first used 350 years ago! Today, Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, often uses the term “soul freedom” when arguing for religious liberty.1 In this sense, the question of what role religious belief should play in public life is not at all new. Indeed, it is older than the United States itself. Yet new questions are being asked as successive generations are less connected to Christianity—or to religion at all—and America moves into the post-Christian future. Both the common good and the Church’s testimony call for careful thought about this issue.

One of the foremost challenges to careful thought concerning these questions is that public awareness of these debates is mixed—even among clergy. This chapter explores how pastors and the general public define terms related to religious freedom and how they view the religious landscape of the United States.