The 2014 Religious Liberty Tour: The Long Journey to Religious Freedom

Every promoter and defender of religious freedom should once in a while visit a few sites which will inspire them. This is what we have done for two weeks. We organized a tour which could be titled “The Long Journey to Religious Freedom”. It began with a three day visit in Rome. The theme could have been “From Persecution to Freedom of religion to Persecution”. It included Christians under persecution, the Edict of Milan in 313 and the hope of a society where freedom would had been the new cement of the Roman Empire to the new persecution by Christians.

From Rome we went to Geneva to follow the signs given by the Humanists and Reformers in favor of the separation of Church and State and Freedom of Conscience. Even if some beams of hope appeared the darkness of intolerance still dominated. From Geneva we went to Torre Pellice on the paths of the Waldensians. What a moving experience to stay a few minutes in one if the caves where they hid to survive. They survived, unlike the Albigenses, who were exterminated. Then we crossed the Alps and drove South of France to Montpellier on the paths of the French Huguenots. Both the Waldensians and the Huguenots had a common ground: They were persecuted for several centuries and their only plea was the freedom of conscience and religion. In France, during a period of two centuries, hundreds of thousands of Protestants had to leave their country.

We visited the Tower of Constance in the beautiful medieval city of Aigues Mortes built by King Saint Louis. The story of Marie Durand has become a symbol of all those who were oppressed, arrested and executed for their faith. She was 19 years old when arrested in 1730. Her brother Pierre was a Pastor and as the authorities did not find him they arrested his sister. Two years later they caught him and hanged him in the public square. But Marie stayed in the Tower until 1768. She did not recant and wrote on a stone the word "Register" which means Resist.

From there we went to the "Musee of the Desert". It is located in a beautiful Huguenots village. We visited the house of one of the leaders of the "Camisards" who fought during two years against King Louis the XIV's armies. The tour wrapped up in Paris from the story of the Massacre of the Saint Bartholomew in 1572 to the Universal Declaration of Human Right adopted on December 10, 1948, less than one mile from the Eiffel Tower.

Religious freedom is a precious and fragile gift. A gift we have to promote and protect. Tours like the one we have had reminds us the high prices so many paid and continue to pay. We have an obligation to keep on in our work in their memory.

--Dr. John Graz, Secretary General, International Religious Liberty Association