The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of

“The framers of our Constitution meant we were to have freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.” Thus declared Billy Graham, the great evangelist of the American century — a man whose voice carried across nations and whose message bridged pulpit and people. In this sentence, simple yet thunderous, Graham reminds the generations that liberty and faith were never meant to be enemies. The Founders did not seek to banish God from the public square, but to protect the conscience of every soul to worship Him — or seek Him — according to their own light.

To understand this truth, one must return to the dawn of the American experiment. The framers of the Constitution, weary of tyranny and persecution, knew too well the darkness that falls when a government dictates belief. From the ashes of Europe’s wars of religion, they sought to build a nation where faith would not be chained to the throne, nor silenced by it. Their dream was freedom of religion — the right of the heart to reach toward the divine without fear, without force, without interference. This freedom, they knew, was not freedom from God, but freedom before Him — each man and woman standing as sovereign of their own soul.

But in later times, the meaning of this freedom began to blur. Where the Founders sought balance between faith and governance, later generations began to separate belief from public life entirely. They mistook the wall of separation between church and state for a wall between God and man. Billy Graham, standing in the heart of the twentieth century — a century torn by atheistic regimes and moral confusion — saw this drift with alarm. His words were not the cry of a politician, but the plea of a prophet, warning that a nation built upon faith cannot long endure if it forgets the faith that birthed it.

When Graham spoke, he echoed the spirit of George Washington, who once said, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Washington and his brethren knew that freedom without virtue decays into chaos, and virtue without faith loses its roots. The Constitution, therefore, was not written to erase God from governance, but to prevent any single faith from ruling over others. Its purpose was not to silence the voice of religion, but to ensure that no voice of conscience would ever again be silenced.

Consider the story of the early settlers of Plymouth, who crossed a tempestuous sea to find a land where they might worship freely. They did not come seeking freedom from religion — they fled oppression for the sake of it. Their journey was not one of escape from faith, but of pursuit of it. Upon reaching the new shore, they knelt and prayed, not to establish dominion, but to give thanks. Theirs was the same spirit that guided the framers more than a century later — the belief that liberty and piety could walk hand in hand, each guarding the other from corruption.

Billy Graham, who traveled the world and spoke to kings and laborers alike, saw that where faith was forbidden, freedom perished. He had preached behind the Iron Curtain and witnessed the barren soul of societies that had declared themselves free from religion. In those lands, the human spirit had been starved of transcendence, stripped of meaning. He warned that America, too, risked losing her soul if she forgot that freedom is not sustained by law alone, but by moral conviction, by reverence for something greater than herself.

Thus, O children of liberty, take heed of Graham’s wisdom. Freedom of religion is not the same as freedom from it. The former uplifts the spirit — it teaches tolerance, humility, and courage. The latter empties the soul — it breeds cynicism and apathy. To live truly free is not to cast off faith, but to let faith illuminate freedom, as the sun gives light to the sky. Let each person, according to their belief, honor the sacred, speak truth with compassion, and walk uprightly in conscience. For liberty without moral foundation is a body without breath.

And so, remember this enduring lesson: the purpose of freedom is not to forget God, but to seek Him without chains. The framers built a nation where the temple of the heart could never be destroyed by decree. Billy Graham’s voice calls across time — that if we cherish that vision, we must keep alive both freedom and faith, not as rivals, but as allies in the grand adventure of the human soul. For in the union of these two — liberty and reverence — lies the strength, the beauty, and the eternal hope of humankind.