Love your neighbor, sue the infringer

In 2021 California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. County had to dole out $800,000 to the Grace Community Church for violating religious liberty and exercising government overreach. More recently, businesses and governments in Louisville, Ky., seem eager to get in on the action.

At the end of March, the Louisville Metro government agreed to pay $800,000 to a Christian photographer whose religious liberties it violated in its attempts at enforcing so-called anti-discrimination laws. Like the similarly named anti-racism, this policy requires what it claims to prohibit.

That same week, a case was announced against Heine Brothers Coffee in Louisville for discriminating against a Christian college student for expressing her Christian convictions. Paige Rogers, a student at Boyce College in Louisville, was fired after she was asked by her coworkers what she believed because she “violated Heine Bros’ policies regarding respectful workplace conduct and anti-discrimination.” Notice that expression of Christian belief by this company’s definition is discrimination. But what’s the heart of the matter? In the eyes of her critics, Paige committed the sin against empathy when she “expressed religious beliefs in a manner that was unwelcome and offensive to others,” and “created discomfort among team members.” What she said produced undesired emotion among her hearers, thus it must be discrimination, thus she must go.

Rather than making a regular philanthropic contribution to a 501c3 or generous tithe to their local church, it seems some on the left end up giving to Christ’s Kingdom by infringing on a Christian’s constitutional rights and then losing in courts. It’s quite an odd phenomenon, but nonetheless one that the left seems ambitious to continue. Saul Alinsky may be their strategist, but the adage of Satan overplaying his hand will be their experience.

Christians need to be aware of such cases and then prepare themselves and their brothers and sisters for what’s coming. In our constitutional system, court action can score moral points and defend religious liberty.

There is another principle at stake. Those who infringe upon your most basic constitutional rights ought to face legal repercussion. Justice calls for a defense of the rights of Christians, and the advance of our constitutional order often comes from making arguments that lead to court precedents.

When Christians takes such issues to the courts, we love both the infringer and the infringed. You love the infringer as you keep him from continuing down that perilous path. It is not good for the Louisville Metro Government or Heine Brothers Coffee to engage in immoral acts. It’s not good for them to act unjustly. Seeking a legal remedy may also serve those whose rights have been infringed. If victory should come, and court precedent be established, you love others who are now or may be in similar situations by providing a stronger foundation to argue their own cases.

Working for court precedents can be one of those great conservative acts whereby you plant a tree whose shade you may not personally enjoy. Churches yet planted and children yet unborn may find that your courage, resolve, and commitment provided them with legal protections for their own rights and Christian witness. The 303 Creative victory at the U.S. Supreme Court was the precedent the Louisville photography case built upon to show clear protections under the law. Without it or cases like it, who knows what could have been.

Christians in our day need to know that the fight isn’t over. Some of us don’t want to fight at all because of some pietistic platitude or latent pacifism. Others have been willing to fight for one victory but weary to the task when another rises in its place. Others battle simply because they’re quarrelsome. Yet still others fight—and take that fight to the courts—with love in their hearts for their friends and foes, and believing this is a path to faithfulness. Love your neighbor, both friend and foe, and, when necessary, sue to defend religious liberty.

May God grant us all the innocence of doves and the wisdom of serpents—there are wolves out there.