Says the student: “I am Charlemagne.”

Today a first grader at The Saint Constantine School learned about Charlemagne. In a burst of enthusiasm for this great leader, he shouted: “I am Charlemagne. Become Christian or die!”

This required some teaching. Atheist, Christian, Muslim, almost any group, has been tempted to use power to make people believe the right thing. Law can force people to do the right thing, but conscience must always be free. Sadly, even Christians have missed this basic truth of our Faith and decided that right attitudes can be mandated by the government.

You cannot make a man become a Christian. If you try, you have sinned.

Since I doubt many Americans make the mistake of this first grader, let me apply this lesson to an immediate issue. We must not allow our government to torture prisoners or break their wills. God in His Holy Heaven has allowed humankind to say “no” in this life to goodness, truth, and beauty. In the same way, we must honor the mental integrity of a man or woman to say “no” to us.

We can fight in an open field of battle. We can imprison a man to keep him from harming others, but that man has the right to his mental integrity. If he hates Christendom, then he must be allowed his hatred. In the political realm, if he despises the United States of America, we need not honor his bad choice, but we must allow it. He has the right to his beliefs.

When people challenge religious freedom . . . forcing a Christian baker to make a cake, he thinks he should not bake or an Amish woman to drive a car . . . then they are bending a conscience to the popular will. This too is a kind of torture and it is wrong. The baker should be allowed to say “no” even if “no” is wrong. The Amish have been allowed to live “eccentric” lifestyles by the majority population because we allow freedom of will.

Nobody should be converted by force.

Given this basic truth, I am sometimes asked about race in America and our civil rights laws. These force business to serve everyone . . . even if a racist is in charge. This is a hard case for a traditional Christian and normally would be wrong. We should boycott the racist voluntarily, but not force him to be “good.” His conscience should be free, though I would hope his business go bankrupt!

Yet in the United States of America, we face a unique situation when it comes to race. Americans enslaved African Americans for hundreds of years. The impact of that history continues. Institutional and personal racism permeates American culture. As a result, we have “bent” the rules and refused to allow freedom of conscience when it comes to race. We have imposed global Christian values on the “peculiar” people (mostly claiming to be Christian) who mixed their racism with the Faith.

Until the years have passed that equal the time of slavery, so special repentance must continue as a society.  State power was used to keep men and women from doing business with both races. We must mitigate that damage using federal power. German society has faced similar limitations in her dealing with the horrific legacy of World War II.

My first grader was right to wish that all people believe the truth, but wrong that force can (generally) make men good. Be Charlemagne, but give maximize moral freedom!