SENTINEL WATCH May 1, 2006 Issue

A DEEPER RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

TONY LOBL

THE PLIGHT of Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman has focused thought on the issue of religious freedom. Accused of being an apostate for converting from Islam to Christianity, Mr. Rahman faced a possible death sentence, prior to finally being freed on technical grounds before any trial took place. His freedom is freedom to flee the country (at the time of writing, he has found asylum in Italy), rather than face mobs who have been protesting his release.

Like many people around the world who have chosen Christianity as their spiritual walk and their way of life, I have found it hard not to be unhappy about this—especially as I live in a multicultural society in which people from all faiths, including Muslim neighbors, benefit from the freedom to worship according to their conscience.

However, I'm realizing that ultimately prayer has to be my answer. As I have taken stock of my own thoughts, I have thought about what religious freedom really means to me. In its purest sense, I feel it must mean the freedom in heart and mind to be religious—"manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity" (Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary). At the deepest level, it is only my own thoughts that can either deny me this freedom or allow it. Standing for this freedom means overcoming any internal mental opposition to expressing spiritual qualities such as love, forbearance, compassion, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, even in the most trying of circumstances.