January 13, 2025
On January 13, the Georgia General Assembly will convene for its 2025 legislative session. Having been down at the Capitol for 18 years, I am looking forward to my 12th year representing Georgia Baptists on social and moral issues facing our state.
This year is set to begin what will be the first of a two-year legislative cycle. Therefore, new legislation will be introduced to the Georgia General Assembly. It is not uncommon that over a two-year period, Georgia Baptists could monitor as many as 50 pieces of legislation, covering approximately 18 or more subject headings.
As many of you know, last year was another successful session in terms of passing good legislation and stopping bad legislation. As Georgia Baptists, we were monitoring a lot of legislation through the two-year cycle that started in 2023. We were monitoring up to 55 bills dealing with subjects such as the sanctity of life, religious freedom, gambling, child protection, and alcohol expansion. See last year’s 2024 video summary.
Once again we will be facing a new slate of bills that will cover a wide range of subjects. I am anticipating at least six or more areas of focus.
Pro-life
Once again, we will be facing a legislative session in the wake of Roe v. Wade having been overturned by the Supreme Court. In addition, the 2019 Heartbeat Law is now in effect even as the Georgia Supreme Court is working again on another ruling.
With these facts in mind, we need to continue to work on legislation and regulations that do a better job of protecting all innocent human life. Whether it’s updating the Heartbeat Law or better regulating chemical abortions, we must be vigilant in doing all we can to protect the health and safety of all mothers and babies.
While we would all love to see abortion ended in Georgia, we must realize that until that can be accomplished, we have to continue to educate and legislate on this issue. We must make sure we do so with sound reason and prudence so that we don’t do more damage than good in reaching the ultimate goal.
If we proceed with only the goal of “saving all babies in the womb or none,” we will damage the progress we have made with the Heartbeat Law that has already saved thousands of lives. We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good until we can get to the perfect. We must continue to save as many lives as possible until we can save them all! See this recent Christian Index article on the Sanctity of Human Life emphasis.
Religious Freedom
Protecting and enhancing religious freedom must remain one of our top priorities in the state. It is important for us to understand, whether we are religious or not, that the first freedom that we were given is freedom of religion!
The Founding Fathers knew that the government was never to tell us what we can or cannot believe. Furthermore, we cannot be treated as second-class citizens for those beliefs. Nor should we be considered unfit for public service because of those beliefs.
This is the beauty of the First Amendment. As a citizen, you can worship, who, what, where, and when you want to, or you can choose to not worship at all. And this worship has the right to transcend a place of worship into the free exercise of that faith in a citizen’s everyday life. This is our conscientious right as Americans!
As it came down to the final two days of the 2024 legislative session, we were mainly focused on supporting legislation such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), SB 180, authored by Sen. Ed Setzler. The RFRA had already been approved by the Senate but never got a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee in order to make it to the House floor for a vote.
We were hoping that there was a possibility that the bill could have been amended to other legislation to be voted on by midnight on the 40th day. That did not happen.
This bill is VERY important because it provides people of faith the same protections from state and local government actions that they now have from federal government actions.
Going forward to 2025, we as Georgia Baptists MUST stand up for religious freedom in our country, if for no other reasons than for the promotion of missions and evangelism. We are not intending to give up on this important protection for our citizens.
Stay tuned as we make sure Georgians have full religious liberty protection in practicing their faith and doing missions in the state of Georgia. Click here for more info on RFRA from the Georgia Baptist religious freedom website.
Please be sure to contact your House and Senate member ASAP and ask them to please support the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in this legislative session. More information can be found on your legislators at this site.
Gambling
This will be approximately the 15th year of intense effort by the gambling industry to push more gambling on Georgians. This kind of gambling includes activities such as casinos, pari-mutuel betting on horses, and sports betting.
You see, the popular gambling of our day would be more characterized as “predatory gambling.” Predatory gambling occurs when corporate gambling interests partner with the government in a way that can end up exploiting its citizens. New legislation at the Georgia State Legislature could lead to this.
This kind of legislation is deceptive because it is usually based upon some very basic false assumptions. For example, because illegal sports betting already happens in Georgia, promoters of Big Gambling mimic those of Big Pot by arguing that we might as well make it legal and “do a better job of regulating it.”
But we have already seen repeatedly that when it comes to legalizing social moral vices, that the theoretical benefits – economic and otherwise -- do not match the devastating negative impact that further availability of these kinds of things produces in our culture. Gambling is not a risk that is worth taking because mental health and public safety issues are way too risky to allow this to be put on a ballot initiative.
A recent poll in Georgia taken during the Republican primary indicated that a large majority of respondents did not want the “politicians in Atlanta” making decisions about gambling. Well, if that were true, then why would we need a legislature? The very point of these lawmakers is to exercise the primary responsibility of making those decisions, even decisions that will require citizens to vote on constitutional amendments.
Our citizens have already decided that the legislature should determine when the benefits of something being put on the ballot would outweigh the risks. The evidence of dangerous consequences from gambling expansion – just like those of marijuana expansion – is overwhelming. Given these undeniable facts, a responsible legislature should not take a chance with expanding state sponsored predatory gambling in our state!
See this handout for more information on this subject (“ABC’s of Gambling” by Professor John Kindt.
Now is the time for you to contact your legislators and ask them to vote no regarding any constitutional amendments being put on the ballot to further legalize predatory gambling in Georgia. Your children and your children’s children are depending on you!
See the most recent article on gambling in the Christian Index.
Child Protection
As always, one of the top priorities of Georgia Baptists is legislation concerning child protection. Children are one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our nation. We're living in a day when children are suffering the most from societal ills that are facing our culture.
Last year we were monitoring up to 23 bills dealing with some facet of child protection. The legislation had to do with a wide range of issues from access to technology, AI child pornography, library regulations, sexually explicit performances, public school privacy areas, human trafficking, protecting girls sports, public school chaplains, online pornography restrictions, grooming exploitation, social media regulation, public school sex education restrictions, public school obscenity protection, puberty blockers regulation, and foster care requirements.
I have stated on numerous occasions that, “If we (the church) don’t at least care about the impact the culture is having upon our children, then what kind of ‘gospel’ are we preaching?”
The Lord Jesus himself placed one of the highest levels of responsibility on the care and protection of children when he said, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:6 NASB).”
Today we need to understand that God calls upon all parents, all adults and yes, all governments to act as shepherds when it comes to caring for the welfare of our children. We should all know that the first responsibility of a shepherd is to protect his sheep.
With the onslaught of matters such as abortion, sex abuse, pornography, school shootings alcohol, drugs, gambling, gender dysphoria, and boys playing in girls’ sports, children are facing their most difficult days in our nation.
Therefore, it is important to closely monitor legislation at the state Capitol. God calls upon us to protect our most vulnerable and valuable asset: our children!
Alcohol
Along with gambling, Georgia Baptists have always opposed any expansion of alcohol sales. Our latest resolution dealing with alcohol was passed by the Georgia Baptist Convention in 2022.
In that resolution, the fact is emphasized that “the availability of alcohol leads to the increased sales of alcohol and that the increased sales of alcohol leads to increased consumption of alcohol and that the increased consumption of alcohol leads to an increase in the potential societal problems associated with the increased use of alcohol…”
Over the last two years, we have opposed at least six alcohol-related bills. This legislation has ranged from accepting exemptions to the three-tier system related to craft breweries, extending delivery distances for alcohol, the expansion of opportunities to sell alcohol on Sundays, and allowing discounted sales of alcoholic beverages.
Thankfully, these bills on alcohol expansion did not pass during the last legislative cycle. Therefore, we will be monitoring the continuing efforts of the industry to lessen restrictions and increase the risks of public health and safety issues.
Marijuana
Another area of concern is the expansion of marijuana sales and use in Georgia. Through the years Georgia Baptists have always opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana and marijuana cultivation in our state. Georgia Baptists passed a resolution in 2015 on the dangers of marijuana.
While Georgia Baptists have never taken a position for or against “medical” marijuana, we have been concerned about these and other forms of marijuana (for example, hemp) not being restricted enough. If proper restrictions are not in place or properly maintained, it can lead to a de facto form of legalizing recreational marijuana.
Therefore, we will continue to oppose things like legalizing the non-medical use of marijuana, even for those over 21 years of age. We continue to have concerns about intoxicating hemp-deprived products and hope to see the “closing of the loophole” of the legal limit on the delta-9 THC level.
We will look forward to working with Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy to help keep the standards of public health and safety policy as high as possible on these kinds of issues.
Conclusion
These are just some of the areas of focus at the state Capitol during the 2025 legislative session. Please know how much I need and appreciate your prayers and support! Thank you for the opportunity to represent Georgia Baptists and the Biblical values for which we stand.
Also, I want to remind you that our annual Pastors Day at the State Capitol is February 6th, from 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM. Here is the registration link for more information and registration: Pastors' Day at the Georgia State Capitol 2025 - Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Mark your calendars and plan to be with us this year!
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Mike Griffin is the Public Affairs Representative of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
