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Rev. April Turner is pastor of Jackson Congregational Church in Jackson, and a licensed clinical social worker in private practice.
I am tired.
Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. Not the tired that comes from a long day or a busy week.
I am tired of watching the circle grow smaller.
Tired of seeing one group after another pushed to the edges. Tired of hearing that the concerns of a community do not matter because there are not many of them. Tired of being told that the loss of someone else’s rights or dignity is not my concern because it does not affect me personally.
It feels like another one of those “First They Came” moments.
Many of us know Martin Niemöller’s poem, written after World War II. Its warning still matters today because rights are rarely lost all at once. More often, they are taken away little by little, one group at a time, while others look away.
That poem came to mind when I learned about recent changes to military religious codes. The Department of Defense has reduced its list of religious codes to 31 categories. Supporters say this makes record keeping simpler. Critics say the change may remove separate recognition for more than 180 smaller faith groups and belief systems. The full effect of the change is still unclear.
What is clear is that many service members, chaplains, and advocates for religious freedom are worried about what this could mean for fair treatment and support within the military.
For many people, faith is not just a box on a form. It is part of who they are.
Reasonable people can disagree about the policy itself. What concerns me is the larger question behind it.
When more than 180 faith groups and belief systems may lose separate recognition, we should ask what is gained and what may be lost. Recognition matters. Representation matters. Being seen matters.
As a pastor, I am a Christian. As a Universalist Christian, I believe every person has worth and dignity. Because of that belief, I cannot support pushing people aside simply because their faith tradition is different from my own.
The First Amendment protects religious freedom. It does not separate popular faiths from unpopular ones. Those protections belong to all of us.
As a Congregational pastor, I stand within a tradition that has long struggled with questions about faith and freedom. While our history, like our nation’s history, is not without mistakes, Congregationalism helped shape American ideas about local self-government and religious freedom.
That history reminds me that religious freedom is not only about protecting people who believe as I do. It is about protecting every person’s right to follow their beliefs without fear.
Throughout American history, smaller religious groups have often faced suspicion or been pushed aside. Yet one of our nation’s strengths has been the belief that religious freedom belongs to everyone, or it belongs to no one.
My concern is not simply that more than 180 faith groups and belief systems may lose separate recognition. My concern is that government should not favor some faith traditions while making others invisible. Nor should any service member be left wondering whether their beliefs matter less because they no longer fit into an approved category.
Next month, our nation begins marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. For 250 years, Americans have wrestled with the meaning of its claim that all people are created equal and have rights that cannot be taken away.
Our nation has never perfectly lived up to those ideals. The American story has been the ongoing work of widening the circle of people who are recognized, protected, and included.
Each generation faces its own test. Will we make that circle smaller, or will we continue the unfinished work of making sure freedom and dignity belong to everyone?
The measure of religious freedom is not how well we protect the majority. The measure of religious freedom is how well we protect the minority.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, perhaps one of the most patriotic questions we can ask is whether we are still committed to liberty and justice for all — or only for those who look, believe and worship as we do.
Whenever the circle shrinks for one group of people, we should all pay attention.