Free to Express Faith

At every opportunity, as God opens doors for us, we can express our faith in Jesus Christ. And, we can do so boldly and confidently, realizing that He empowers us and gives us the words to speak.  We can be motivated by His love to speak and act according to His will.  In Romans 1 (ESV), we can read:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith. ”

By faith.  We walk by faith - we live...by faith.  And, we should absolutely be grateful that as Americans, we have a constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion - to live out that faith publicly.  

Becket, which is a legal organization that defends religious freedom, just released the 2025 edition of the Religious Freedom Index. Its website notes:

The seventh edition of the Religious Freedom Index marks another milestone, with the Index overall reaching its highest cumulative score yet (71). It also shows rising scores in several dimensions, most notably Religious Sharing, which measures Americans’ acceptance of the right to express faith beliefs and preach religious doctrines to others.

Regarding that area of Religious Sharing, the Becket summary notes: "This year saw a heartening jump in support for Religious Sharing, our Index dimension that measures support for the right to preach and share one’s faith in public. More Americans also say that freedom of religion is inherently public, jumping from a 52% agreement in 2020 to a stronger 57% agreement in this year’s Index."  Some of the other findings of the survey include:

The summary also relates: "We also found that Americans overwhelmingly (62%) support the Supreme Court’s recent landmark religious liberty case Mahmoud v. Taylor, finding that a public school violated the rights of parents by refusing to permit religious opt-outs from public school curriculum with LGBT+ themes for elementary schoolchildren.

The Christian Post quoted from Becket CEO and President Mark Rienzi, who, in a statement, said: “As we celebrate National Religious Freedom Day, it’s encouraging to see that a growing number of Americans reject the idea that faith belongs behind closed doors...The Founders recognized that our nation is stronger when we allow our neighbors to bring their beliefs into the public square without fear, even when those beliefs cut against the grain.”  He also stated: “Year after year, the index has made clear that religious liberty remains one of our most cherished values. Even amid deep divisions, our nation still believes that our first freedom belongs at the heart of our culture; not as a source of conflict, but as a foundation for overcoming it. The work before us is to see that freedom protected for our children and theirs in the years to come.”

The CP website summarized the methodology, stating: "An overall religious freedom index was calculated based on Americans’ responses to questions asking them for their views about religious pluralism, religion and policy, religion sharing, religion and society, church and state and religion in action. The scores for each dimension, on a scale from 0 to 100, were averaged together to create the overall religious freedom index. A higher score indicates a higher level of support for principles of religious freedom, while a lower score indicates a lower level of support."

The support for religious freedom in America overall, according to a Becket survey, has continued to grow over the past few years.  This can give Christians confidence as we interact with culture at large and the people to whom God sends us or who are sent by Him.  We must keep His purposes in plain sight and in the forefront of our minds.

When faced with public officials who would want to take away our constitutional protection of freedom of religion, a broad segment of Americans continue to value the importance of expressing their faith in tangible ways.  That ranges from being free to choose what we can say or do and free to choose not to take certain actions that would violate our conscience. From opting students out of classes that teach objectionable materials to refusing to communicate a message that is inconsistent with our faith perspective, including the way we run our businesses, we can take seriously our role to be representatives of Christ.