{"id":2549,"date":"2013-03-15T09:23:04","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T13:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/activistfaith\/?p=2549"},"modified":"2013-03-15T09:23:04","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T13:23:04","slug":"the-importance-of-religious-freedom-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/03\/the-importance-of-religious-freedom-6.html","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Religious Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cGo to Pharaoh and say to him, \u2018This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.&#8221;<\/em>-Exodus 8:1<\/p>\n<p>Why did God give his people freedom? So they could worship him. They were not given liberty to pursue their own self interests, to improve their economic situation, or to avenge their oppressors. God provided freedom to freely worship him.<\/p>\n<p>Americans have long enjoyed this privilege of religious freedom. Unfortunately, the access to religious freedom for such a long period of time has led many to live as if religious liberty is unimportant. Yet religious liberty is at the heart of much of God&#8217;s work in this world, with history all the way back to Moses and the Jewish people in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>Let us not neglect or abuse our freedom to worship God. Let us fully appreciate our liberty to worship God and give him our full allegiance today.<\/p>\n<p>+++<\/p>\n<p>DILLON BURROUGHS is an author, activist, and co-founder of Activist Faith. Dillon served in Haiti following the epic 2010 earthquake and has investigated modern slavery in the US and internationally. His books include <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newhopedigital.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/thirst-no-more\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Thirst No More<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/search.barnesandnoble.com\/Undefending-Christianity\/Dillon-Burroughs\/e\/9780736937023\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Undefending Christianity<\/em><\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/search.barnesandnoble.com\/Not-in-My-Town\/Dillon-Burroughs\/e\/9781596693012\/?itm=3\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Not in My Town<\/em><\/a> (with Charles J. Powell). Discover more at <a href=\"http:\/\/activistfaith.org\/\">ActivistFaith.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Originally posted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holywrit\/?p=998\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cGo to Pharaoh and say to him, \u2018This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.&#8221;-Exodus 8:1 Why did God give his people freedom? So they could worship him. They were not given liberty to pursue their own self interests, to improve&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-christianity","category-church-in-action"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Importance of Religious Freedom - Activist Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/activistfaith\/2013\/03\/the-importance-of-religious-freedom-6.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Importance of Religious Freedom - Activist Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Then the LORD said to Moses, \u201cGo to Pharaoh and say to him, \u2018This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.&#8221;-Exodus 8:1 Why did God give his people freedom? So they could worship him. 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