Christianity Today

America's Roman Catholic bishops just completed the "Fortnight for Freedom," a two-week period intended to "support a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty." As evangelical and Catholic leaders have spent the past year opposing the Obama administration's so-called contraceptive mandate, the timing, motives, and agenda driving the "Fortnight for Freedom" have prompted widespread commentary. Rather than scrutinizing the Fortnight's agenda, Protestants could examine deeper questions than what took place on the surface.

It's important to consider the Fortnight's placement on the calendar—the significance of the Fortnight's dates, June 21 to July 4—to understand the nature of religious freedom and the relationship between what to some mixes like oil and water: the Christian tradition and American liberty.

It's worth considering whether the church fathers and the founding fathers enjoy a deeper conceptual affinity—precisely around the meaning and foundations of religious freedom—than many people (including perhaps the bishops) have noticed.

A feast of martyrs vs. the Fourth of July

The Fortnight for Freedom began on June 21, marking the vigil of the feasts of Saint John Fisher and Saint Thomas More. Fisher and More were both executed because they refused to endorse Henry VIII's claimed supremacy over the English church. The vast majority of English nobles and bishops endorsed the supremacy, while Fisher and More stood virtually alone. Though urged to use mental reservation to endorse the succession while denying its legitimacy in their hearts, the men were convinced that they could not do so without violating their consciences and endangering their salvation. As More declared,

I could not meet with the Works of any one Doctor, approved by the Church, that avouch a Layman was, or ever could be the Head of the Church.

Fisher was executed on June 22, 1535, and More was executed on July 6, 1535. In 1970, the Roman Catholic Church declared that they should share the same feast day, so every June 22 More and Fisher are honored as martyrs for the church. They are honored for standing up for a simple idea, though one that has proven consistently controversial and dangerous throughout history: the church cannot be true to itself if it does not enjoy independence from the powers that be.

The other bookend of the Fortnight for Freedom is the Fourth of July, for the obvious reason that this marks Independence Day—the birthday of American liberty. On that date in 1776, of course, the American Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence drafted by Thomas Jefferson. If June 22 stands for the right of the church to be independent, July 4 stands for the right of every people to be independent. It stands for the right of political self-government, and of course the Declaration of Independence roots the right of political self-government in the permanent and universal rights of all human beings.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

June 22 and July 4, then, would seem to have little to do with each other. They represent paradoxes: liturgical vs. the civic, ecclesial independence vs. political self-determination, martyrdom vs. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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