The mother of a neighborhood family recently had a life-threatening medical procedure. Paying for her emergency medical care cost the family all the funds they had available – including money to pay the mortgage, utility bills, etc. With potentially dire financial impacts from saving the mother’s life, the family had few places to turn. Fortunately, one place they could find help was their local church congregation. They were able to get temporary financial assistance to pay the bills so they could move beyond this dramatic healthcare expense and begin meeting their financial obligations again. 

This story – or one very much like it – is the story of thousands of Utahns and millions of Americans. When people experience dire emergencies or traumatic life changes, they often turn to their faith and their church to get them through.  

As a result, government safety net programs are better able to focus their aid on those who truly have nowhere else to turn. 

This is one of many ways that religion helps solve personal and social problems. Yet, according to a new report from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the American public is split 50-50 on the question of whether religion is part of the solution or part of the problem when it comes to issues and events in our nation today. 

The fact is that churches do things like reduce homelessness, improve mental health, increase educational achievement and motivate gender equality. What explains the gap in understanding? Part of the answer is likely the decline in religiosity and religious affiliation among certain groups of Americans, especially younger generations. If you aren’t an active member of a church, it is difficult to see the good a church may be doing behind the scenes in the surrounding community, and easy to see negative news headlines about the actions and statements of organized religion.

The disparity between public perceptions of religion and the full set of facts about religion complicates policymaking around protecting religious belief, practice and expression to fulfill the aspiration of religious freedom envisioned by the First Amendment – and religious freedom policy is complicated already. As my Sutherland Institute colleague Bill Duncan recently wrote: 

Governments must be proactive in considering how otherwise neutral laws could impact people of faith and religious organizations, and they need to include appropriate accommodations of religious practice in their policymaking. This is not always simple, since accommodations can affect others who don’t share – or may even strenuously oppose – the religious practices being accommodated. This is best illustrated by the well-known recent examples of conflicts caused by the application of antidiscrimination measures to businesses, social service providers, and individuals who have faith commitments that may be at odds with legal requirements. 

Advancing religious freedom in the face of such complexity and gaps in understanding – not to mention in a divided America – requires a high level of statesmanship and savvy from policymakers and religious freedom advocates alike. It requires the drive to seek consensus among disparate groups and viewpoints, the intelligence to recognize genuine political opportunities when they present themselves, and the will to strike a principled compromise to take advantage of political opportunities. The consensus around marriage inspired by religious freedom amendments to the Respect for Marriage Act is an example of such policymaking. 

If advocates for religious freedom – elected and otherwise – can embrace this approach to advancing religious freedom, then the gaps in public perception of religion noted in the Becket report can be overcome. By finding consensus and unity through religious freedom, advocates can remove a political barrier to people recognizing the good that religion and people of faith do in society.

The public good of religion is a foundation of religious freedom. Increasing public understanding of the good that religion does in society builds the foundation of religious freedom for generations to come – ensuring that stories like the one of the family at the beginning of this article will continue to play out in communities across the nation in the future.