Our shrinking religious liberty

The alarm over our crumbling religious liberty in America, the land of liberty, is growing painfully loud.

We began awakening to how dangerous the world was becoming for people of Christian moral convictions when Mozilla executive Brendan Eich resigned under pressure over the discovery that he had quietly donated to California’s Proposition 8 campaign, which would preserve that state’s definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. Phil Robertson survived a push by gay groups to remove him from the Duck Dynasty cast after he expressed his biblically informed view on homosexuality, but real estate developers David and Jason Benham found themselves without a television deal because of their religious views. Then came the wedding cake wars: A baker in Oregon faces a possible fine of $135,000 for declining to be involved in a lesbian wedding. When Indiana tried to pass a law protecting business owners of Christian conscience against such coercion, the activist outcry quickly neutered the attempt.

It’s true that religious liberty has always been limited by what is consistent with civil society. In Reynolds v. United States. (1878), the Supreme Court refused to accept the Mormon practice of bigamy as qualifying for protection under the First Amendment’s “free exercise” clause. In Employment Division v. Smith (1990), the court denied that the sacramental use of peyote, a powerful hallucinogen, is an excuse for violating Oregon’s drug laws. The state can also compel behavior that violates a religious conscience—e.g., military service and payment of taxes. But American society—at least the part that controls the economic, cultural, and political heights—is coming to view sexual liberty, especially liberties associated with the public acceptance of homosexuality, as redefining the limits of religious liberty.

Public opinion is shifting dramatically toward viewing homosexual relations, including within marriage, as natural, healthy, and thus socially acceptable. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni expressed what many seem to believe: There is no war on Christianity, with many Christian denominations now accepting homosexuality as within God’s will. Historically, he believes that what is within the bounds of Christian morality has changed or “evolved” with the progress of civilization, so it is time for the reactionary churches to fall in line on this issue and either “take homosexuality off the sin list” or be forced to do so. Bruni draws on the liberal view of Scripture, the progressive view of history, and the authority of liberal theologians. Why should secular Americans not see conservative evangelicals through this lens?

The Supreme Court will render its decision in late June on whether the 14th amendment guarantees same-sex couples the same right to marry that opposite-sex couples have. An Obama administration official admitted to Justice Antonin Scalia that a decision in favor of this guarantee would call the tax-exempt status of Christian colleges, and thus their continued existence, into question. They will leave us with only our churches … perhaps.

In this time of cultural exile, Christians need a revised long-range plan: Trust our sovereign God calmly, preach the Scriptures faithfully, cultivate our families wisely, evangelize the lost consistently, and engage the culture winsomely.