Why tolerate Protestants?

Sir Fred Catherwood recently represented Evangelicals at a forum in Kazakhstan to discuss religious liberty (see news item on p. 7). Here is the text of Sir Fred's speech, which passionately argues for tolerance.

I want to talk about the contribution which the Kazakhstan Protestant churches can make to this country.

I am myself a Protestant. I am President of the British Evangelical Alliance, set up 150 years ago to bring together all the Protestant churches in Britain. And I am here now to represent the European Evangelical Alliance, which represents Protestant churches across Europe. Not only is half of Europe Protestant, but much more than half of the United States and Canada are also in the Protestant tradition.

How did half of Europe become Protestant, and what is the difference between the Protestants and the other two Christian traditions, Orthodox and Catholic, which are nearer to each other than either is to Protestantism?

In its first 1,000 years the Christian church was a minority, first within the Roman empire and, when that was overthrown, among all the pagan tribes which followed it, the last of which were the Danes. One by one, these tribes became Christian but, at the beginning of the second millennium the church, in alliance with the new rulers, became rich and arrogant and corrupt, and launched the notorious crusades, for which there was no justification in Christian teaching.

The Reformation

In the 14th and 15th centuries a Reform movement began, first in England and then in Bohemia, and finally, in the 16th century, a full Reformation began in northern Germany and spread to Scandinavia, Hungary, Switzerland, Holland, England and Scotland. Because they protested against the corruption and political power of the Catholic Church, they were known as Protestants.

They went back to the Bible, the words of the old prophets, and especially of Christ and the apostles, to set the standards for the church as it should be. At the same time, the Bible, which had been in Greek and Latin, was translated into all the European languages. For the first time, the Bible could be bought and read by everyone in their own language. They were not dependent on priests. The two greatest reformers, Martin Luther, a German, and John Calvin, a Frenchman living in Switzerland, drew up the creeds of the new churches and (Calvin especially) spelt out the new lifestyle.

Spiritual & economic impact

This new lifestyle transformed the Protestant countries and, as many Protestants emigrated to North America, they set the lifestyle of that country at its birth. The reformers taught that Christians could not only read God's Word for themselves, but they could and should pray to God, too. They did not only have to come to God through the priest. Everyone was accountable to their Creator for all that they did. The Reformation also had a major economic impact.

Paul taught that Christians should work hard to provide for their family, and those in need, so that they should not be dependent on others. From the 17th century, that belief in hard work and personal development brought the greatest explosion of wealth in the history of the world.

Scientific method

That was not the only economic effect. The Bible, the book of God's Words, they found, gave the character of the Creator, and they believed that they had to look at nature, the 'book' of God's works, with the same respect. There was only one Creator, so the laws of nature must be the same everywhere; he was a God of order, so there must be order in nature; he was a God of reason, so we must be able to reason out the relation between the laws. And God had promised that the natural laws would be stable until the end of time.

These are the foundations of the scientific method which has produced the greatest explosion of knowledge in the last 400 years, and which gave a huge boost to the already growing trade. But the scientific method is the exact opposite of pagan beliefs which are still with us.

Truth, trust and wealth

The Protestants also read that they must tell the truth, and that belief produced the trust needed between the merchants who carried the new trade, and the bankers who financed it and put the new wealth to immediate use.

Today the Protestant countries are still the richest - the US, Canada, Britain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand all have incomes ten times the world's average. For example, in the 17th century, France had a strong Protestant minority called the Huguenots, who were the dynamo of the French economy, but when they were repressed and expelled, France suffered economically. The Reformation produced profound changes in the Catholic church too, but the mainspring of the world economy is, without doubt, the countries in the Protestant tradition.

Good citizens

The Protestant church makes its members good citizens. Church services are centred less on ritual, more on teaching from the Bible, which tells us that we should show our faith by what we do. It says 'Faith without works is dead.' Christ told his followers that the first command was to love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, but the second was like it, it was to love our neighbours as ourselves. We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, look after the fatherless and the widow, and care for those who are sick. What we do to the least of people we do to Christ, and those who do not have this love in them have no place in his eternal kingdom.

I have no doubt - and research confirms it - that it was this love for their neighbours which won over first the Roman empire and then the pagan tribes which conquered it, from the Goths to the Danes. I am sure that it is responsible for the extraordinary growth of the Christian church in China in the last 40 years, to a total now unofficially estimated at 50 million people.

No coercion

The Bible teaches that no one can be forced to become a Christian, so it is no part of the work of the church to brainwash people. The apostle Peter said simply: 'Be prepared to give an answer for the faith which is in you with meekness and fear. We respond to those who want to know. God alone has the power to convert.

Partnership

Another part of the Protestant tradition is a helpful and constructive partnership between church and state.

The two great leaders of the early church, the apostles Peter and Paul, both taught that the state had been given by God to protect its citizens. 'The authorities that exist', said Paul's letter to the Roman Christians, 'have been established by God. Consequently he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong.' Peter in his first general letter says the same: 'Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men.' Only if ordered to do what is morally wrong must the Christian refuse.

This issue arose when Hitler ordered the German churches to throw out all their leaders who were of Jewish descent. But the Christian church is, as the apostle John repeats four times in one book, of every tribe, nation, people and language. There must be no racial discrimination in the church. This was also the argument of the majority of churches against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The German churches failed to resist this racism, with terrible results to the Jews.

Moral order & citizenship

All governments need the support of a moral order which encourages its people to be good citizens. The moral order needs to encourage the family, where children learn the difference between right and wrong, good behaviour and bad. No country can survive without a moral order to support the political order. The ideal is a constructive partnership between religious and political leaders, one teaching what is right and wrong, the other ruling on what is legal and illegal.

In Europe the Evangelical Alliance brings together Protestant churches of every kind; churches with bishops, like the Lutherans and the Anglicans, churches who elect their governing body like the Presbyterians, churches which unite for specific purposes, like the Baptists, Pentecostal and charismatic churches which have their own style of singing and praying. All of these churches believe that they and their members are equal in God's sight, so the members are consulted by the leaders. That means that when a decision is taken, especially an important one on their relations with government, the members will support it.

Example

Consultation is hard, but its results are lasting. I have spent the last seven years travelling round our country persuading churches to support the social action needed in our major cities. In the last four weeks I have visited four groups of leaders and I hope that by the end of this year we will have 30 city networks. That is an example of a helpful partnership between local churches, and also between church and state at local level.

Other faiths

While we are doing this, we meet those of other faiths doing the same work. In a meeting in the city of Derby, where Rolls Royce aero engines are made, we were welcomed by the Mayor, who is a Muslim. He said that the city authorities found it hard to deal with all the social problems and needed our help. And he hoped that we could also work with the Muslim community, who faced the same problems as we did. We welcomed this. We do not have to become Muslims and they do not have to become Christians. But we can and should work together as citizens of the same city facing the same problems. Hostility between Christian and Muslim helps no one but those who are hostile to all religious faith. And there are plenty of those today.

Not a sect

Protestants are not a sect. we are now 500 years old, and we believe we are nearer to the simple churches of the first millennium, whose faith spread through their love and care for their pagan neighbours. We repudiated the increasing arrogance of the church at the beginning of the second millennium, its belief that people could be converted by force, and its wealth and worldly power.

But our first duty is to be good citizens of our own country and good neighbours to all our fellow-citizens.

Protestant countries are far from perfect. Practising Christians are everywhere in a minority. But everywhere we try to be an influence for good.

Sir Fred's recent speech at a forum in Kazakhstan to discuss religious liberty