King: Religious freedom still important in America
Bill King says the ability to choose our faiths while respecting those of others has kept us mostly free from destructive violence.
Updated 2:51 pm, Saturday, July 13, 2013
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Standing on a quiet stretch of beautiful beach just south of here, with clear, aquamarine waves lapping up on sugar-white sand, it was hard to imagine the savagery that unfolded on these shores some 550 years ago in the name of religion.
St. Augustine holds bragging rights as the oldest, continuously occupied European-established settlement in America. The French Huguenots landed north of here in 1564 in what is now Jacksonville, seeking to escape religious persecution in Europe. However, the Spanish, who had previously explored Florida, claimed it as a Spanish possession. When the Spanish crown heard that French Protestants had settled there, it sent a military force to evict the French.
The following year, the Spanish force landed south of the French settlement and after establishing a camp, attacked the Huguenots. However, the French had learned of the Spanish force's arrival and sent its own army out to attack the Spanish. So when the Spanish arrived at the settlement they found it undefended.
The Spanish slaughtered all the men remaining in the settlement and shipped the women and children to Havana. In the meantime, the French force had encountered a storm and were shipwrecked on the beach. A few days later, the Spanish came upon the rag-tag remnant of the French force and convinced them to surrender.
Once the French surrendered, the Spanish commander ordered that all of the French be executed. A Spanish priest persuaded the commander to spare any that he found to be "Christians" - that is, those who were willing to denounce Protestantism and profess to be Catholics. Only 12 did. The rest were put to the sword. In all, about 250 men were executed.
Since that time, the place has been known as "Matanzas," the Spanish word for massacre.
There is a sad irony that the oldest non-native settlement in America should have such an ignominious origin. Nonetheless, we eventually threw off the shackles of religious intolerance and founded our country on the principle of religious freedom.
Our Founding Fathers, who held a variety of religious beliefs, recognized the mischief to which religion could be put, especially if mixed with government authority.
George Washington wrote to a friend, "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause." It is for that reason that a separation of church and state was written into the Constitution.
It is not that our Founding Fathers were anti-religious. To the contrary, virtually all of them professed some religious belief and frequently commended religious study and training to their fellow countrymen. Washington wrote, "You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ."
But he also insisted that soldiers in the Continental Army be allowed to practice any religion they chose. And he gave specific instructions that workers at Mount Vernon could come from any faith (specifically mentioning Muslims) or even be atheists long before the Equal Protection Amendment was added to the Constitution.
This heritage - of embracing a faith while respecting the faith of others - is one of our Founding Fathers' greatest gifts. It has kept our country free of internecine conflict - for the most part. It has made America a beacon for those seeking religious freedom from every corner of the globe, which ultimately has made the country stronger and more vibrant.
Standing on that quiet beach where so much blood was spilled in the name of religion more than 500 years later and in a country where we take religious freedom and tolerance for granted, it was almost impossible to imagine that horrific scene.
Yet we need look no further than the current civil war in Egypt or the conflicts in a dozen other countries around the world to see that religion still is used by some to invoke violence and bloodshed.
There but by the grace of God, and the good sense of our Founding Fathers ...
King’s columns appear on Thursday and Sunday. Email him at email@example.com and follow him at twitter.com/weking.