This episode is Part 1 of my conversation with Professor Jeffrey Stout about our democracy.

There is a broad conviction that our democracy here in the United States is in crisis. In my mind, Dr. Stout is one of the most important scholars of democracy and also one of the best guides for us learning what we, as citizens, need to understand and do to improve our democracy and maintain its thriving.

Dr. Stout is Professor of Religion, Emeritus at Princeton University. He is a theorist and historian of democratic culture. His work is concerned with ethics, religious thought, political theory, law, and film. The two of his books that I draw upon for these two episodes are Democracy and Tradition, and Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America. His two lectures which I draw from for these interviews are his 2017 Gifford Lectures titled ‘Religion Unbound: Ideals and Powers from Cicero to King’ and his 2022 Frederic R. and Molly S. Kellogg Biennial Lecture on Jurisprudence titled ‘The Tree of Democratic Liberty.’ Both of these lectures can be found on Youtube.

My own commitment to democracy and religious liberty is rooted in my Baptist heritage.

The kind of Baptist community into which I was born and to which I grew up to embrace, articulated its beliefs in a document called The Baptist Faith and Message (TBFaM. The edition I am using is 1971). Principal among those beliefs is ‘soul freedom’ as Baptist historian, Walter Shurden, calls it in his book, The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms (TBI), or as Baptist theologian, E. Y. Mullins, calls it in his book, The Axioms of Religion, ‘the competency of the soul in religion (TBFaM p.8).’

For Baptists of my ilk, this soul freedom is rooted in the nature of God and subsequently in the nature of who we are as individuals. God is free and in creating us as individuals, God created us in God’s image. This image in which each of us is created gives to each of us freedom, equality, dignity, and worth. Freedom of thought and choice are essential for true relationships, fellowship, and communion. These freedoms are the basis by which we are able to love. Thus, soul freedom is what empowers us to be able to respond to God, to enter into true relationship with God and to love God. It is also the means by which we can relate to and love one another.

As free and equal individuals before God, we each are thus free and equal before one another–any and all others—before any and all people and any and all organizations. But having this freedom also includes responsibility and accountability. We become responsible and accountable for our thoughts and choices.

Soul freedom is both exclusive and inclusive (TBFaM p.8). As Shurden defines it, Soul Freedom is the affirmation of the inalienable right and responsibility of every person to deal with God without or to the exclusion of the imposition of creed, the interference of clergy, or the intervention of civil government (TBI p.23). But, as The Baptist Faith and Message says, it includes all elements of true faith (TBFaM p.9).

Thus Mullins lists six axioms:

The theological axiom: The holy and loving God has the right to be sovereign (and is thus free).

The religious axiom: All souls have an equal right to direct access to God.

The ecclesiastical axiom: All believers have a right to equal privileges in the church.

The moral axiom: To be responsible a person must be free.

The religio-civic axiom: A free Church in a free State.

The social axiom: Love your neighbor as yourself.

As The Baptist Faith and Message says, religious liberty does not rest upon a legal document of a political state…A free state does not create religious liberty. It only recognizes and respects it. But religious freedom is essential in the making of a free state (TBFaM pp 141-142).

It continues to assert that in a free state, religious liberty means the right of every person to worship or not worship as that person’s conscience dictates. It means equality before the law in all matters relating to faith or unbelief (my paraphrase) (p.141). My Baptist ancestors were always equally passionate about defending the freedom of unbelievers as much as believers.

As I and Baptists like me understand it, in a community of equals—any community of equals including any faith organization and any form of civic government, democracy is the rightful and essential means of decision making.

The Baptist Faith and Message states, ‘Religious liberty is not religious toleration. Religious toleration is a privilege granted by people (and I will add, by power). Religious liberty is a right bestowed by God. For liberty involves responsibility and demands inner and personal controls (TBFaM p.141)’. Although others throughout our nations history have not grounded this definition of liberty in the theology I have just outlined, they nevertheless share this definition. This definition becomes important to a better understanding of democracy.