Churches will stay in the political arena

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Dr. J. Robert WhiteI have never felt the need to be greatly involved in political activities, but with a prominent anti-Christian agenda afoot in America today, and even in our beloved State of Georgia, my failure to get involved has changed dramatically.

Multiple voices are telling Christians, “You ought to stay inside your churches. You should not be speaking out on matters related to legislation. Don’t you know, there is supposed to be a separation of church and state?” This is a well-worn argument used frequently to discourage the church from speaking out on issues of religious and social concern.

The church and state argument has no basis in fact and is not in the Constitution. What the Constitution does say is that the government shall make no laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion.

I have some bad news for the folks who want the church to stay out of the political arena. We are not going away and we are not staying silently in our churches. My encouragement today is for all Georgia Baptists to stand strong for religious freedom and against discrimination. The discrimination I am referring to is discrimination against Christians.

The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was left to die this year in the legislative process. That is a crying shame. There are some champions for religious freedom in our Georgia General Assembly, to be sure. Senator Josh McKoon wrote the RFRA bill for the Senate and Representative Sam Teasley for the House. These men are to be commended for the strong effort they put in on RFRA this year.

So what’s the problem with our General Assembly? Why can’t we have a Religious Freedom Restoration Act approved in Georgia as so many other states have already passed and signed into law?

My encouragement today is for all Georgia Baptists to stand strong for religious freedom and against discrimination. The discrimination I am referring to is discrimination against Christians.

I think the Indiana situation answers that question. The agenda being promoted by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community and adopted by the liberal media is that Religious Freedom legislation will bring on discrimination against the homosexual people who live amongst us.

I guess I’m wondering, what is the difference between discrimination against homosexuals and discrimination against Christians? Should there be a movement against Christians in this country by those who reject the clear teaching of the Bible regarding homosexuality?

The liberal media has joined the LGBT lobby in an unfettered attack against our religious faith. I witnessed George Stephanopoulos interrogating the Governor of Indiana regarding the recently approved Religious Freedom Restoration Act in that state. Stephanopoulos questioned the Governor by saying something like this, “Governor, are you telling me that Indiana will allow discrimination to take place against the LGBT community?”

What I wanted the Governor to say as he was grasping for words was, “We do not wish to have discrimination in Indiana against the Christian community through efforts of those who would require them to act contrary to their faith. This would be in direct opposition to the religious liberty upon which our nation was founded and to the Constitution that protects our religious freedom.”

Since the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was approved almost unanimously by Congress and signed by the President in 1993, and since multiple states have signed into law their own versions of RFRA, there has not been even one lawsuit that has proven that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows discrimination, yet this is the battle cry of the LGBT lobby.

Where are the bright, conservative legislators we elected to represent us on issues like this? Why are they not standing up? Perhaps it is the fear that we won’t be able to host the Super Bowl, or bring Volvo to our state. If that’s it, then our values threshold is pretty low.

I have learned a lot during this legislative session. I have learned that we need more courageous leaders in our General Assembly who will stand up and do the right thing for Georgia. I have learned that it is high time Georgia Baptists wake up to what is happening in our state, or we will wake up to a state that we don’t recognize. I have also come to the conviction that we need good, solid Georgia Baptists who will run for office, folks who want to be the salt and light that Jesus commanded us to be.

leadership, politics, religious freedom, RFRA