Should Be Concerned About My Religious Liberties?
Sermon Notes
Today we are continuing our teaching series, Graceful Resistance, where we’ve been addressing some difficult topics that we are facing in our current culture. Today we are talking specifically about our religious freedoms.
In 2015 Russell Moore published a book entitled Onward: Engaging the Culture Without Losing the Gospel. In it, he addressed some of the same issues we’ve been discussing over the past few weeks here at City Awakening. But the premise of the book was really drawing attention to the fact that America has crossed a threshold from a place where Christianity and its values made up the moral majority to a climate that is now post-Christian. There was a time when a majority of Americans agreed on more traditional values like monogamous marriage, the nuclear family, the right to life, the good of prayer and church attendance, free enterprise, etc. Moore explains that this majority believed that a Christian America was the real America, and that, “evangelical Christianity represented the best way to preserve those values and to attain those ideals.”
Many of us would like to shake our head in agreement and say that we need to get back to those good ‘ole days. There’s a part of me that agrees. But, as Russell Moore goes on to explain, there are shortcomings of this way of thinking. The biggest issue is a mindset that tends to see Christianity as a means to an end…and that end is to save the Republic. The danger is we become more concerned about God and our country than we are about Christ and his kingdom.
This should lead us to ask some hard questions about our own motives in promoting Christianity, about our values, our sacrifices, and our comforts. And in these days that are not just post-Christian, but increasingly anti-Christian, how are we to respond when our faith comes under fire? Should we be concerned about our country and our religious liberties? Should we stand up and fight for the things we believe? Or should we just live a quiet life with our heads down, and let happen what will happen?
These are difficult questions that I know most of us are wrestling with in some form or another. Unfortunately, there’s not always a black and white answer, but today we’re going to try to gain some Biblical wisdom to help. We’re going to begin in Genesis 3. We’ll look at vs. 15-17, and then move to some other texts along the way. Our big idea for today is that Christians should be good stewards of religious freedoms but keep our hope in spiritual freedom. Christians should be good stewards of our religious freedoms, but ultimately keep our hope in our spiritual freedom.
The Case for Freedom
To understand the Biblical foundation for not just religious freedom, but for freedom in general we need to go all the way back to the garden of Eden. God established a standard with Adam and Eve. Look at Genesis 3:15-17:
15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
4:6 The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So, she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Notice that even though God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge, he left them with the freedom to make their own choice. He could have very easily set angels in place to guard the tree, or put it in an impossible to reach location, or left it out of the garden altogether, but he didn’t. He gave them the opportunity to choose to obey or not, and in doing so God established freedom as the most fundamental human right.
As we move on to the New Testament, we see that Jesus continued to uphold the freedom of choice for everyone he encountered. Jesus never forced people to believe in or follow him. He usually exposed their sin and their need, he extended an invitation for them to follow, and then respected their decision to either accept or reject him. There’s a good example of this is Luke 9:51-56:
“51 When the days were coming to a close for him to be taken up, he determined to journey to Jerusalem. 52 He sent messengers ahead of himself, and on the way, they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. 53 But they did not welcome him, because he determined to journey to Jerusalem.”
“54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”
55 But he turned and rebuked them, 56 and they went to another village.”
The Samaritans rejected Jesus, and James and John were ready to destroy them. Talk about being zealous. These guys were not on the same page with Jesus in this moment, which is why he turns rebukes them. I can just imagine Jesus turning to look at James and John like…. “What are you thinking? No, we’re not calling down fire on them!”
Would more people have followed Jesus after that? Probably, because they would have been scared for their lives. But it wouldn’t have been genuine. It would’ve been forcing people into submission. And we all know that just doesn’t work. You can’t force someone to believe something.
St. Augustine once said, “When force is applied, the will is not aroused!... [for] one can enter the church UN-willingly; Approach the altar UN-willingly; and Receive the sacrament UN-willingly…but no one can BELIEVE unless they do so Willingly!”
God knew that it would do no good to force people to believe in him. It would have been a lot easier for God not to give us a choice. There would be no rejection of God, no sin, and Jesus wouldn’t have had to die on the cross. But he created us as free-thinking individuals who can look at two choices, reason, and make a decision. He stirs our hearts and even gives us faith, but we have the ability to think independently and creatively. It’s part of being made in the image of God. By creating us in his image God gave every person dignity - an eternal value. Adam came from dust, which had no dignity, but God gathered the dust and breathed life into and made Adam in his own image. He had eternal worth because God gave it to him.
The Bible overwhelming teaches the value of human life, the dignity of every individual, and their responsibility in either accepting or rejecting God. Jesus died so that “whoever believes in him” would be saved, but that means that whoever does not believe won’t be saved. Jesus invites you to come, but you either follow or you don’t.
In all of this we see that there is a Biblical foundation and argument for freedom in general, and for our freedom of religion. Knowing this leads us to then ask some questions regarding our religious freedoms, especially as Americans living in the 21st century.
1. What is the Government’s Role in Freedom?
You are probably familiar with the Declaration of Independence which was officially approved on July 4, 1776. The second paragraph of that document reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, …
The members of Congress that signed this document agreed that the purpose of government is to protect the God-given rights of people. They intended to form a government that would guard these rights and if that failed, the people had the right to overthrow it and form a new government. Some 15 years later in 1791, the Bill of Rights were ratified to provide a more specific explanation of which rights the constitution protected. It’s Amendment I of the Bill of Rights that speaks to our religious freedoms, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”
This is in line with God’s institution of freedom in Genesis 1, and this was one of the unique features of the American idea. Our government was established to help protect the God-given rights and human dignity of all people. But this leads us to another question:
2. What Does It Mean to Exercise My Religion?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”
Some people could and have argued that the free exercise of religion refers to your privately held belief and practices. In other words, you’re free to believe what you want, go in your house and pray or worship, or even go into a house of worship (like a church) and worship there as you wish. However, the question comes when someone’s faith cannot, by definition, be held to the private arena. And this is the case for many religions, including Christianity. For example, maybe you’ve been out in public and seen a Muslim pull out their prayer mat at noon and kneel to pray. Their privately held beliefs now become public. Or what about a Hindu woman who wears a bindi on her forehead, or a Christian who stops to pray before a meal in a restaurant. This is all the free exercise of religion that can’t be kept private.
For a Christian, our faith must be lived out in the public arena. In no way did Jesus indicate you could follow him and keep to yourself. He instructed his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. He taught his followers to love other people, care for the poor, the widows, and the orphans. The fruit of our faith should naturally overflow into every part of our lives, not just inside the walls of our house or the church building. Their Christian faith compelled people like Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to speak and act in the way that they did, which was very much a public exercise of their religion.
The US Supreme Court has been somewhat inconsistent in how they uphold this law, but historically, most legal professionals have agreed that the Freedom Clause protects private as well as public worship. The Cornell Law Institute says that “The Clause protects not just religious beliefs but actions made on behalf of those beliefs.” That would include actions in the public arena. But more and more it seems that the interpretation of this law is blurred, and the demonstration of faith, especially Christian faith, is being suppressed. Which leads to the next question:
3. Are My Religious Liberties Actually Being Threatened?
The short answer is yes. In 2009 a group of more than 150 religious leaders, from multiple backgrounds, got together to sign The Manhattan Declaration. The purpose was to recognize the threat to Christian values and to declare a commitment to hold to their conscience. One paragraph states this,
In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of republican government is founded.
This is over 150 leaders (most of them who serve in the public arena), coming together to say, “We see a problem.” Things are changing, and it’s not for the good of the individual or the country as a whole. Tim Keller says, “As in the past, the assertion of religious liberty clashes with the public morality of our day…”
Essentially, this means that there is no more neutral ground. For many years in our country Christians could live a comfortable life while maintaining their convictions. But I would argue that those days are ending, if not already gone. There is no more floating in the calm waters of the moral majority. Today you are either paddling against the current or you are getting swept away, which is why we called this series Graceful Resistance.
Now there are some things we need to be careful to consider in this.
We need to make sure we distinguish the difference between comfort and convictions. It would be more comfortable to live a world where everyone thinks and acts like us, but just because they don’t doesn’t mean that our convictions are being trampled. Religious freedom must be for everyone, or it will not be for anyone.
Secondly, we need to make sure that we are distinguishing the difference between protecting a political view and standing up for Biblical values and convictions. It’s tempting to believe that America is and should be a Christian nation (and for a season it was close). It’s easy to look back with rose colored glasses and wish for simpler times. But no policy or politician is going to fix the problem, and that’s ok because our hope doesn’t lie in the government, politics, or any lifestyle or freedoms that we have. Ultimately, we submit to and serve King Jesus and abide by his laws, so the issue is less about whether our religious liberties are being protected and more about whether we are willing to live an authentic Christian life regardless of whether it’s the comfortable and accepted thing or not.
If you study the Bible and history, you will see that true Christianity has always been and it will always be a minority religion. Jesus said in Matthew 7:14, “14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.” If Christianity ever became the most widely held belief, then it probably would not be true Christianity. Jesus said to take up your cross and follow him. The majority of people aren’t going to be on board with that.
Are our religious freedoms are being threatened in this country? Yes, but we have to remember that our hope should never depend on the protection of laws or government; our hope is only found under the security of Jesus Christ.
4. Is The Church At Risk of Declining or Going Away?
According to a 2020 poll done by Gallup research, for the first time in Gallup’s history, church membership is below 50% (47%). The first time they surveyed the country was in 1937 and 73% of Americans were a member of a church. For a number of reasons, church participation continues to decline in our country, and we will likely see that trend continue.
However, we know that Jesus said that he would build his Church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Matthew 16:18) Nothing will ever be able to overcome his Church. It has survived for over 2000 years, and you can look in some of the most oppressive countries around the world and find the church growing despite intense persecution. Jesus’ church will always face opposition, and we should not be surprised or worried by an anti-Christian world or government. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10:
16 “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves. 17 Beware of them, because they will hand you over to local courts and flog you in their synagogues. 18 You will even be brought before governors and kings because of me, to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles. ….21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of my name.
Many will leave the church as the pressure to compromise our faith intensifies. Jesus didn’t promise a life of peace and comfort. He warned that people would hate us because of him. I think we are only beginning to feel what the Church around the world has experienced for thousands of years. Our cancel culture, which leaves no room for conversation or healthy debate will continue to cancel Christians, but we know how this whole story ends. That why we can model a different way of disagreeing. Canceling someone goes against our Biblical understanding of the fallen human nature. We know that no one is perfect, including ourselves. Therefore, we don’t have to feel threatened and lash back like a wounded dog backed into a corner. The gospel-driven response to disagreement is grace. We can’t stop the world from canceling us (or even other professing Christians), but we can stand firm in our beliefs, while graciously living with people that believe differently. The question then becomes when should we fight for what we believe?
5. When Should I Fight For What I Believe?
There are several passages of Scripture we could turn to for help here, but two stand out to me. Paul says in Romans 13:1, “Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.” His point is that Christians should live peaceably in the land and generally follow the law. He even points out, as we said earlier, that the authorities are put in place by God for your good. However, we also know that Paul was arrested multiple times and eventually died in prison for preaching the Gospel. So, he obviously didn’t mean a Christian is obligated to bow completely to the law, especially if the law is in opposition to God’s law.
We see this play out in the book of Acts also. In Acts 4, Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, which was the highest Jewish court. Ultimately, they couldn’t find any crime to charge the disciples with but before they let them go, they warned and ordered them, “not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.” “19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
These guys weren’t going to stop telling people about Jesus, and rightfully so. There is a point where we have to be willing to speak out for our beliefs, and more importantly, practice those beliefs, even if it goes against the law. It’s easy to err too much on the side of passivity in this regard. We swing the pendulum too far by not wanting to offend or be at odds with anyone. It’s easy to forget that the gospel is offensive in nature, and it is going to always be counter cultural. We shouldn’t be offensive, but we shouldn’t bend the truth either is.
So, we must be vigilant in how we live. We can do this by asking questions like:
“What does the Bible say about this issue?”
“Is the cultural response, popular opinion, or law contradictory to Scripture?”
“Can I go along with this without compromising my beliefs?”
It’s these types of questions that have led countless men and women to stand up, fight for, and even die for their faith.
I think all the way back to the midwives in Ancient Egypt who chose to hide and protect babies, which allowed Moses to live. I think about William Tyndale who was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English. I think about William Wilberforce, the British abolitionist who headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor, who was hanged for his efforts to assassinate Hitler. I think about Corrie Ten Boom and her family who bravely hid Jews in their home during WWII. The list could go on and on.
More recently, I think about the Green family that owns Hobby Lobby. Their firm beliefs on the sanctity of human life led them to fight against the health care plan that required them to pay for contraceptives for their employees that went against their beliefs.
All of these are examples of men and women who decided they couldn’t ignore the culture any longer, because the culture was in direct opposition to the gospel. This doesn’t mean that we will all be in a position where we should break the law or take on the legal system. But there are 3 scenarios that we should pay attention to:
Where injustice is evident - We are careful not to preach social justice over the gospel, but we do preach that the gospel calls us to seek to justice. Jesus commanded his followers to care for the orphans and the widows, and for the least of among us. In Isaiah 1:17 God commands his people, “Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.”
It is wrong for us to stand by and watch as people are deliberately treated without dignity and respect, or as life is wrongfully taken from another. We can’t rightfully remain neutral or silent on issues like human trafficking, ongoing slavery, racial injustice, or abortion. All these issues put the power of life and death in human hands instead of Gods. The Church should be willing to speak up and act on behalf of every human life, regardless of what opposition it brings us.
When we are forced to act against our Biblical convictions - There is a growing risk in our country of Christians facing laws and scenarios that go directly against their religious convictions. This has already been happening, as in the case of Arlene’s Flowers in Washington State. In 2013, owner Barronelle Stutzman was asked by two customers to provide floral arrangements for their same-sex marriage. She politely declined because she felt that doing so was in contradiction to her Biblical view of marriage. Most of you know the story. The Washington State Attorney General then sued the flower shop for violating the state's Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in a public place. After years of legal battle, just this year the final case was heard and Barronelle Stutzman lost in court.
This is just one example of many. As Christian values and cultural values continue to collide there will be more instances where business and individuals will be forced to risk standing on their convictions or to compromise their beliefs. This is not a new dilemma. When we act on our convictions we act with thousands of men and women throughout history that chose to sacrifice and even suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11, “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
When one action or choice could lead to something more deliberately evil in the future - This is the tension we most regularly deal with as Christians, and the dilemma that’s most grey. How does one small, seemingly insignificant decision today affect what choices we are forced to make tomorrow. It’s the tension we face when we go to the polls in November. It’s the tension we face when we go to the store, purchase our clothes, watch a movie, or comply with certain mandates.
We have to ask ourselves if doing so or not doing so will give support to or validate an agenda that goes against our beliefs. There needs to be careful consideration to pretty much everything that we do, not so that we can be cynical and skeptical of everyone, but so that we can act with wisdom.
Again, these are rarely black and white decisions, but just to give a few examples of what I’m talking about: A study that came out last year showed that at least 83 global brands, ones that I guarantee are represented in this room and in my home, 83 brands depend upon factories in China that utilize the forced labor of Chinese ethnic minorities. Slave labor is largely behind the production of our shoes, phones, cars, and more. What about another report that revealed 39 major companies, that all of us do business with, that directly contribute to Planned Parenthood, which is responsible for over 300,000 abortions every year in the U.S.? I’m not saying you have to go and boycott all these businesses or write letters to their board of directors, but it might be worth consideration. These are just examples of how seemingly insignificant decisions play a bigger part in standing up for our Christian beliefs and values. At the end of the day, much of this is less about fighting for our freedoms and more about actually living out our Christian faith. Paul Chappell, pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church and president of West Coast Baptist College says, “The temptation to compromise the truth and deny the right of God to define it doesn’t necessarily come in a single moment of obvious martyrdom.” Little things matter. We need to use the everyday choices we still get to make to be good stewards of our freedoms, while at the same time keeping our hope in the spiritual freedom we have in Christ.
This leads to our final question. It’s the last question we’ve asked in dealing with each of the issues we’ve addressed:
6. How Can I Live With Graceful Resistance?
Study - Be a student and learn to think critically not just emotionally. I love what Paul Chappell says, “We can’t truthfully say that we have counted the cost if we don’t even know what our biblical convictions are.”
The Bible - The Bible is the foundation of all truth, and it is our ultimate authority as Christians. God’s Holy Word has the final say in our lives. Therefore, we have to know it! Know what you believe and why you believe it.
The Issues - Be well-informed on the issues and laws of our day. Don’t be a slave to the news. It will just make you anxious. But be educated on what’s really at hand so you can make wise decisions. There are reliable, balanced sources for information out there.
2. Pray - Sometimes these issues seem like they are beyond us, and they usually are in one sense, but on the other hand we have the power of prayer. Ultimately, this battle is fought on our knees, not in the courts. “Prayer is our first response, not our second.”
Pray for Wisdom - Pray for wisdom for yourself, for your children, for pastors and leaders. Pray that we would be able to navigate these issues with grace, truth, and conviction.
Pray for Justice - The world will continue to suffer the pain of sin and the Bible says it will get increasingly worse until Jesus returns. So, these issues aren’t going away, but that doesn’t mean we should throw our hands up and do nothing. No, we seek the welfare of the city. We pray for justice, political leaders, and we pray for the sake of Christians who are already suffering for their faith.
3. Act - Utilize prayer, but don’t let it be a cop-out either. We can and should do things like support a ministry that addresses the problem of sex slavery, vote for political candidates who support a Biblical view of marriage, start the process of foster care or adoption, or at least support families in the process, and best of all use your religious freedom to openly share the gospel with someone. That’s a freedom we have that many people around the world don’t, yet we take it for granted daily. Even the freedom of attending a public church meeting on a Sunday morning is a way to steward our freedom. There are millions of Christians who would love to be able to gather in a building like this and sing out loud, not having to whisper their hymns, and not fearing the police will break in to arrest them. Yet it’s easy for us to compromise for the sake of something more fun or convenient. If we are truly concerned with our religious freedoms (and not just a political agenda), then we will start by committing to Christ’s church. It’s the primary means God gave us for affecting change in the world. We will join together in living out our faith with boldness, courage, and compassion.
This brings us back to the big idea for today: Our spiritual freedom should compel us to be good stewards of our religious freedoms. We are free to live as strangers and aliens in this world because we are no longer slaves to the world. Jesus said in John 8:36, “if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.” If we have placed our trust in Jesus, then we should never fear being enslaved by laws or men. The world is our temporary home, and it is a just a spec on the timeline of eternity. Because we aren’t bound to the systems of the world, we can and should stand unashamedly on the truth of God’s Word. And when that stance brings cancelling, mistreatment, or even persecution when we can remember the words of Peter, “14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear them or be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. 16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame” (1 Peter 3:14-16).
City Awakening, let’s pray that we can live as a graceful resistance in the world that has a vastly different agenda than we do. Let us count the cost of following Jesus and stand out with both boldness and compassion as we live with eternity in mind.