Why lawmakers fear standing up for religious liberty

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

This week, a committee of the Missouri House dealt a possibly fatal blow to a bill to protect the rights of individuals and churches opposed to participating in same-sex weddings. The proposal would have placed before the voters the choice of amending the state constitution to provide specific protections to Missourians who “decline either to personally be a participant in a wedding or marriage or to provide goods or services of expressional or artistic creation, such as a photographer or florist, for a wedding or marriage or a closely preceding or ensuing reception.”

Opponents of similar measures protecting religious people who act in accordance with their sincere beliefs say the laws are too vague and could provide a cover for criminal acts such as trespassing, assault, or even murder. But the Missouri bill was specifically related to wedding services. And yet, Republican lawmakers could not get it out of committee.

John Stonestreet said the stalling of the law in Missouri reflects society’s negative perception of the term “religious freedom.”

“When people hear it, they hear it as a license to discriminate,” Stonestreet said. “When legislators hear ‘religious freedom,’ they hear it as something they don’t want to touch because their political careers are in danger.”

Does that mean eventually pastors could be forced to perform same-sex weddings? The jury is still out, Stonestreet said. But the culture has clearly shown it does not believe religion belongs in the world of business.

“I believe that if a pastor shouldn’t be coerced to preach a sermon or perform a ceremony, photographers shouldn’t be forced to take pictures or tell a story in a way that violates their conscience. They’re both living out of their deeply held beliefs,” Stonestreet said. But the mainstream of American culture doesn’t agree.

“People do not fundamentally think religion is a whole vision of life,” he said.

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