“Demanding Liberty: An Untold Story of American Religious Freedom” by Brandon O’Brien

Introduction

Brandon O’Brien offers the reader a popular level summary of the development of religious liberty during the early days of the American experiment through the lens of a man who had a significant role in shaping that development. Isaac Backus was “almost [the] perfect embodiment of the evangelical spirit of his times.”^[1] Indeed, Backus experienced in his own life the movement from Congregationalist to New Light Separatist, and then from Separate to Baptist. During each of these movements, Backus also suffered within his own mind and social engagement the pains of such changes. It is precisely because of Backus’s personal development and how Backus himself engaged with the issues, theology, politics, and institutions of his day that O’Brien endeavors to lead the reader on a guided tour of some of the notable moments of Backus’s life and ministry. As a well-informed guide, O’Brien helps the reader not only to understand what he sees but also to make connections between the past and the present.

Book Summary

The book itself is ordered by chronology and argumentation, which coincide with one another in the life of Isaac Backus and in the development of religious liberty in early America. Many of the religious colonists in New England in the early 1700s had a negative perspective of the spiritual state of their society and churches. During the 1740s, what has come to be known as the First Great Awakening sent shockwaves through the previously established structures of colonial society. Longtime church members were claiming new spiritual conversion, religiously uninterested townspeople were committing to church membership at great cost to their reputation and purse, and established churches with institutionally trained ministers were increasingly perceived as a restraint to passionate and personally engaging religion.

O’Brien tells a brief version of the broader story, but he largely focuses on Backus’s own awakening and subsequent departure from the established church (i.e., Congregationalist or Standing Order) in Norwich to a new Separate church. O’Brien writes, “Thus Backus experienced two conversions during the Awakening. The positive conversion was that he passed from darkness to light, death to life… The negative conversion was that he began his journey toward becoming socially marginalized because of his religious convictions.”^[2] This was the experience of many New Lights or enthusiasts during and after the First Great Awakening. And while the religious establishment faced “enemies everywhere,” both “pietism and rationalism,” Backus’s story clearly fits within the pietistic framework and aspiration for religious liberty.^[3]

Who should decide the qualifications for local church leaders? What is a legitimate local church? Who is actually a member of a given church? Should those who neither benefit from nor agree with a certain pastor’s ministry be taxed to pay for his salary, his property, and his church-house? These were the practical questions that drove all the discussions, petitions, legislation, and legal actions regarding religious liberty in New England during the eighteenth century. Very often, Baptists answered these questions directly opposite of their established church peers. And quite frequently, when Baptists disagreed and disobeyed, they suffered social and legal consequences for it. Here too, Backus was personally and deeply involved. His own mother was arrested and poorly treated for not paying her religious tax. And Backus was the chairman of something called the Grievance Committee for the Warren Baptist Association. This committee was tasked with investigating and recording reported instances of persecution and ill-treatment of Baptists at the hands of the civil and religious establishment.

O’Brien notes that the Baptists observed an opportunity to advance the cause of religious liberty by associating it (both practically and conceptually) with the cause of civil liberty during the time of the American Revolution.^[4] And yet again, Isaac Backus was the face of Baptist political engagement. He published An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty in 1773, and he presented this manifesto in front of the Massachusetts delegates to the Continental Congress in 1774. In booklet form, Backus “advanced a compelling argument that at the core of America’s liberty problem there was actually a theological problem.”^[5] In short, Backus articulated a Baptist political theology, arguing for “two earthly entities” through which “God now mediates his rule” – the state and the church.^[6] Backus argued that each of these entities has their own jurisdiction, the state over people’s bodies and the church over people’s souls. In both cases, these mediating institutions of God’s rule had to manage people who are naturally inclined toward all manner of sin and depravity. 

Backus failed to sway the state officials to see religious liberty his way, and he also failed to see the demise of religious establishment in Massachusetts, which didn’t happen until twenty-seven years after his death (in 1833). But O’Brien posits that a consideration of Backus’s life, thought, and public activity may be a great benefit to twenty-first-century Americans who feel the political landscape violently shaking beneath them. O’Brien says that we must understand our history, we must be willing to confess our past sins (especially those of unequally distributing civil rights), and we must be able to learn from our mistakes.^[7] In addition, he says that it’s important that we perceive our role in this unfolding drama correctly. Though he does not clarify whether he believes that American Christians should perceive themselves as the establishment or the marginalized.

Evaluation and Critique

A Biography of Backus?

O’Brien said that this book was not intended as a biography of Isaac Backus, but I think it may well serve just such a purpose for many readers. O’Brien’s narrative is easy to follow, and he provides enough historical detail for the reader to be at least introduced to the panoramic canvas that is the life of Isaac Backus. It seems to me that the reader who is unfamiliar with Backus may well enjoy this book as an introductory and accessible biography of a sort.

An Invitation to Read More Backus?

If you are a fan of Isaac Backus (like I am), then you will probably be very interested in the last ten to twelve pages of this book, just before the Notes.^[8] O’Brien offers a sort of annotated bibliography for various works on Evangelical engagement with American culture.^[9] And he even provides a complete list of all published writings from Isaac Backus,^[10] as well as the three main biographies of Backus – Maston, Hovey, and McLoughlin.^[11] Both the uninitiated reader of Backus and the experienced student can enjoy this feature of O’Brien’s work in this short book. And anyone can benefit from reading more Backus.

A Thesis?

As you might be able to assess, I am having a hard time articulating what this book is. O’Brien wrote what I thought might be his thesis on page 4: “Isaac Backus advocated for a ‘sweet harmony’ between church and state. In terms of legislation, America adopted a vision for church-state relations much more similar to Backus’s than to Jefferson’s or that of the Congregationalists.”^[12] But O’Brien does not aim to demonstrate what America’s vision or legislation is today. Nor does he tell us anything at all about Jefferson’s view of religious liberty, and he gives us very little substance of the Congregationalist’s view during one episode of the debate. So, this book is not an argument to explain how or even that America’s vision of religious liberty is like Backus’s. It may well be, but that’s not what this book is about.

O’Brien wrote his “goal” for the book on page 12. He said, “my goal has been to tell the story of the life and work of Isaac Backus in a way that emphasizes the most challenging or applicable details for today.”^[13] Later he builds on this goal by stating what might be a possible thesis for this book on page 67. O’Brien writes, “My experiences combined with Backus’s story have convinced me that our view of religious liberty has to be large enough to encompass those we disagree with.”^[14] Indeed, he later asserts, “In actual fact, religious liberty is an aspiration we have not yet fully and completely achieved.”^[15]

So, I suppose it’s possible that this book is about how to achieve religious liberty by applying what we might learn from Backus’s life and example. But here again, I am not convinced that O’Brien has followed through on such a thesis. He doesn’t offer the reader a definition of religious liberty achieved. What is the promised land to which O’Brien might lead us by drawing upon the wisdom of the past and forging ahead to a better future? At key points in the unfolding story of Backus’s life, O’Brien avoids giving the reader a positive assertion about which direction is right. If we must understand our history, what specific conclusions are we to draw? Merely that there was a fight for religious liberty with various perspectives of the concept? And if we must rightly perceive our role in this drama, which better describes Christians in America, establishment or marginalized? O’Brien seems to say that we may perceive ourselves either way.

Conclusion

The benefit and enjoyment of this book will largely depend upon the reader and what he or she wants from it. If you want a popular level biography of a major figure of Baptist history, then this book will probably be enjoyable to you. There is no argument sustained throughout the book, and O’Brien hits many of the highlights of Backus’s life, which is fascinating. If you haven’t read or known much about Isaac Backus, and you’d like to have someone tell you why you ought to and where you can find good resources, then you will probably benefit from this book. As I’ve said, it’s a great introduction to Backus’s life, and the resource lists are fantastic. But if you want a short and accessible book that makes a distinctive contribution to the historical or present discussion on religious liberty, then you may leave this one on the shelf. 

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^[1] Brandon J. O’Brien, Demanding Liberty: An Untold Story of American Religious Freedom (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2018). 160. Cited from William McLoughlin in Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition.

^[2] O’Brien, 30.

^[3] O’Brien, 33.

^[4] O’Brien, 112.

^[5] O’Brien, 113.

^[6] O’Brien, 115.

^[7] O’Brien, 163.

^[8] Dear, Mr. O’Brien (should Brandon O’Brien ever read this), please don’t ever publish a book again that doesn’t include numerical indicators in the text to show me (1) that there is a note or citation and (2) where I can find the endnote. I know you gave me corresponding page numbers, but this was the first time I’ve encountered such formatting, and I didn’t like it. When I saw a quotation, I didn’t know if I should even flip back to the end to see if there was a citation or a further comment on it, since there was nothing in the text to indicate that I would be rewarded for the work of finding the corresponding page number at the end of the book. Endnotes alone (instead of footnotes) are nearly enough to repel me from reading a book, but endnotes without numerical indicators in the text was a new level of frustration.

^[9] O’Brien, 166-167.

^[10] O’Brien, 171-176.

^[11] O’Brien, 165.

^[12] O’Brien, 4.

^[13] O’Brien, 13.

^[14] O’Brien, 67.

^[15] O’Brien, 162.