Christian martyrs and religious liberty.

"Sixty thousand Christians are killed every year for their faith," claimed Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, during the July 2004 meeting of the BWA General Council in Seoul, South Korea, as reported by Associated Baptist Press. Then he continued, "That is why we as Baptists need to be more and more concerned about religious freedom in the 21st century, because the clash of civilizations is more real than ever before."

"At home and abroad, the American experiment in religious freedom is under attack. Its defense must not be neglected," asserted Oliver Thomas, former general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee, in the June-July 2004 issue of Report from the Capital. Thomas affirmed the work of the Baptist Joint Committee: "The BJC is the nation's best hope for a balanced witness on church-state issues."

The BWA on a global scale and the BJC on a national scale are two Baptist organizations for which Baptists can be extremely proud. Impingements on religious liberty and church-state separation rip into the heart and soul of people worldwide, and Baptists suffer in the process. These organizations regularly address such issues.

The Baptist History and Heritage Society through the perspective of history supports general thrusts in behalf of religious freedom for all people in all places at all times. Society publications prove it. Most recently, the BH&HS released the booklet Religious Liberty and Church-State Separation by Brent Walker, BJC executive director.

The society has been related to the production and/or distribution of six pamphlet series since 1979. It is no accident that every series included one pamphlet on freedom themes: "Baptists and Religious Freedom" (1979) by Stan L. Hastey; "J. M. Dawson: Shaper of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty" (1987) by James M. Dunn; "Religious Freedom" (1989) by William R. Estep, Jr.; "Why Do Southern Baptists Believe in Religious Liberty?" (1993) by Carol Woodfin; "Doing Freedom Baptist Style: Liberty of Conscience" (2001) by Charles W. Deweese; and "Myth: Baptists Support State-Sponsored Prayer" (2003) by Doug Weaver.

Baptist History and Heritage, the society's journal, has included entire issues relating to these topics: "Religious Freedom Among Early Baptists" (October 1989) and "The Changing State of Church and State" (Winter 1998).

The BJC will host the BH&HS's June 1-3, 2006, annual meeting in Washington, DC. That meeting will be an excellent opportunity to explore in creative fashion some needy topics relating to religious freedom and church-state separation.

I would like to suggest four reasons why the BH&HS should always include the investigation of freedom issues in its programming.

First, Denton Lotz's claim that 60,000 people die every year because of their faith means that 164.3 persons die every day and that 6.8 persons die every hour. The reality of multiple daily executions over faith issues deserves the best thinking and most aggressive influence for good that Baptists can produce.

Second, to defend freedom aligns Baptists with the self-identity and mission of Jesus who, while reading from Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, claimed that the Lord's Spirit was upon him to "proclaim release to the captives" and "to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (RSV).

Third, to advocate religious liberty for all and to assert church-state separation keeps Baptists close to the precise reasons they came into being, to persistent assertions about freedom in their confessions of faith, and to the martyrs who dot the landscape of their heritage.

Fourth, to push for people's religious rights is so integral to historic Baptist identity that to fail to keep pushing represents an attack on the Baptist soul. Put another way, working for freedom is an excellent way to guarantee the success of the Baptist future.