"We stand here to say that our freedom does not come from any human being, our freedom comes from God. This is what we mean when we say it is an inalienable right .... That is why . . . nobody, not even the state, has the right to restrict the freedom of people arbitrarily. That is why there is a thing called the rule of law." Desmond Tutu and John Allen, The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution (New York: Doubleday, 1994), p. 170.
These powerful words, uttered just six years ago by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, were spoken courageously at a meeting in protest of his government's apartheid policy. The tremendous strides that the South African government has had to take toward reform make it clear that the freedom God provides for all His children should never be taken for granted—nor should our ability to demonstrate God's law of freedom ever be underestimated.
Freedom in the United States is so valued that it is written into its Constitution in what is called the Bill of Rights. The first freedom listed—even before freedom of speech and press—is freedom of religion. Yet there have been many challenges to religious freedom during the latter part of this century. A very serious challenge to religious freedom came in 1990 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a test the Court had used for thirty years, prior to restricting a religious practice, was a "luxury" the country could no longer afford. The religious community in the United States was stunned. Suddenly, religious freedom had been judged to be of less crucial importance than other freedoms.
