Moral revolutions require legal revolutions. This is certainly the case with the sexual revolution and its various causes of sexual liberation. A revolution is only complete when the legal structure aligns itself with a new moral understanding. This alignment is exactly what is taking place in American public life on the issue of gay liberation.

Every society has a structure of systems that either influence or coerce behavior. Eventually, societies move to legislate and regulate behavior in order to align the society with what is commonly, or at least largely, considered morally right and wrong. Civilization could not survive without a system of moral controls and influences.

Throughout almost all of Western history, for the most part, this process has played out in a non-threatening way for the Christian church and Christians in the larger society. So long as the moral judgment of the culture matched the convictions and teachings of the church, the church and culture were not at odds in the courts. Furthermore, under these conditions, to be found on the wrong side of a moral assessment was rarely a likelihood for Christians.

All that began to change in the modern age as the culture became more secularized and as Western societies moved more progressively distant from the Christian morality they had embraced in the past. Christians in this generation recognize that we do not represent the same moral framework now pervasively presented in modern academia, the context of creative culture, and the arena of law. The secularization of public life and the separation of society from its Christian roots has left many Americans seemingly unaware of the fact that the very beliefs and teachings for which Christians are now criticized were once considered not only mainstream beliefs, but essential to the entire project of society. As the sexual revolution completely pervades the society, and as the issues raised by the efforts of gay liberation and the legalization of same-sex marriage come to the fore, Christians now face an array of religious liberty challenges that were inconceivable in previous generations.

In one of the most important of these recent cases, a judge found that a wedding photographer broke the law by refusing to serve as a photographer for a same-sex wedding. In an incredibly revealing decision, the court stated, quite straightforwardly, that the religious liberties of the photographer would indeed be violated by coerced participation in a same-sex wedding. Nevertheless, the court found that the new morality trumped concern for religious liberty.

Similarly, we have seen religious institutions, especially colleges and schools, confronted by the demands that amount to a surrender to the sexual revolution with regards to nondiscrimination on the basis of sex, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation pertaining to admissions, the hiring of faculty, and student housing. In some jurisdictions, lawmakers are contemplating hate crime legislation that would marginalize and criminalize speech that is in conflict with the new moral consensus.

We now face an inevitable conflict of liberties. In this context of acute and radical moral change, the conflict of liberties is excruciating, immense, and eminent. In this case, the conflict of liberties means that the new moral regime, with the backing of the courts and the regulatory state, will prioritize erotic liberty over religious liberty. Over the course of the last several decades, we have seen this revolution coming. Erotic liberty has been elevated as a right more fundamental than religious liberty. Erotic liberty now marginalizes, subverts, and neutralizes religious liberty—a liberty highly prized by the builders of this nation and its constitutional order. We must remember that the framers of the Constitution did not believe they were creating rights within the Constitution, but rather acknowledging rights given to all humanity by “nature and nature’s God.”

The challenges we will face with regards to religious liberty are immense and increasing by the season. The government has at its disposal mechanisms for moral coercion that reach far beyond prisons, jails, and fines. For example, at least some business people who refused to participate in same-sex weddings, such as photographers, bakers, or florists, were required to undergo “sensitivity training.” In order to understand how the new moral regime uses sensitivity training, it is helpful to think back to iconic works of the twentieth century such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s 1984. These sensitivity training programs represent efforts to bring intellectual cleansing. And now, in some jurisdictions they can be inflicted upon religious believers who dare oppose the morality of the new regime.

The religious liberty challenge we now face consigns every believer, every religious institution, and every congregation in the arena of conflict where erotic liberty and religious liberty now clash. This poses no danger to theological liberals and their churches and denominations because those churches have accommodated themselves to the new morality and find themselves quite comfortable within the context of the new moral regime. Furthermore, some of these liberal denominations and churches style themselves as defenders of the new morality and actually advocate legal modifications that restrict the religious liberty rights of more conservative churches and denominations.

Interestingly, Jonathan Rauch, one of the early advocates of gay marriage warned his fellow moral revolutionaries that they must be careful lest they trample upon the conscience rights and religious liberty of their adversaries. In his book, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought, Rauch voiced his concern:

Today, I fear that many people on my side of the gay-equality question are forgetting our debt to the system that freed us. Some gay people—not all, not even most, but quite a few—want to expunge discriminatory views. “Discrimination is discrimination and bigotry is bigotry,” they say, “and they are intolerable whether or not they happen to be someone’s religion or moral creed.”

Rauch also stated, “I hope that when gay people—and non-gay people—encounter hateful or discriminatory opinions, we respond not by trying to silence or punish them but by trying to correct them.” Very few signs, however, are signaling that Rauch’s admonition is being heard. A review of the religious liberty challenges already confronting the conscience, conduct, and belief rights of convictional Christians shows us how daunting all this really is. We can be sure this is not the end of our struggle. It is only the beginning.

Article originally published at albertmoehler.com.

Written by Sean McDowell

We apologists love to offer evidence for the existence of God, the reliability of the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus. These are powerful truths that have convinced many to personally trust Christ. Yet amidst our desire to defend the truth of Christianity, let us not forget the power of forgiveness, which, in my view, is perhaps our greatest apologetic today.

Our world seems to be falling apart at the seams. Each week the news is filled with increasing awareness that our world is profoundly broken and that humanity’s problems—whether racial, economic, political, moral, or religious—run deeper than we can imagine.

In light of the current state of the world, and given how many outsiders increasingly have a negative view of Bible-believing Christians, here is a question we must contemplate:How can we demonstrate the unique power of Christ in a world in which everyone has a microphone?

We certainly need to keep proclaiming the truth of the Christian message. In fact, as I show in A New Kind of Apologist, we need apologetics in the church today as urgently today as ever before. Jesus, Paul, the apostles, and the early church fathers were all apologists. And yet there is something we must not forget: our willingness to offer forgiveness to people who have wronged us, and especially our enemies, demonstrates the unique power of the cross more robustly than arguments alone. Genuinely offering forgiveness often breaks down barriers and invites people to consider reasons for our faith.

Why is this so? For one, there is always a way to avoid truth (2 Peter 3:15-16). It is our human nature to suppress it (Romans 1:18-20). We naturally get defensive when people challenge our cherished beliefs. But unexpected, grace-filled acts of forgiveness are harder to dismiss. They subvert our defensiveness. In fact, they often catch us off guard and invite us to consider the deeper reasons motivating people to act with such kindness. And it is uniquely the Christian worldview that can provide both the moral basis and motivation for forgiveness (e.g., Matthew 18:21-35; Ephesians 4:32).

This was clearly on display a decade ago in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. A man stormed into an Amish schoolhouse, shooting ten girls and killing five. Although clearly grieved, shocked, and heart-broken, the Amish community responded in a manner that the world had trouble comprehending—they offered forgiveness to the man, and reached out lovingly to his family. Some members of the Amish community went to the cemetery for the killer’s burial and others donated money to the widow and her kids.

Why did they respond in this manner? First, the Amish believe that God is sovereign, even when things appear to be spiraling out of control. Second, they have experienced God’s love and grace, and believe He has called them to extend His grace to other people. They hold no grudges and willingly offer the same forgiveness to other people that God has extended to them.

The world was watching when the Amish forgave the man who committed this horrific act.Many people were inspired, and others simply in wonder, just as some people were at the death of Jesus. After seeing the calm and gracious manner in which Jesus faced execution, the Roman centurion professed, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).

Few things invite people to consider the power of Christianity more than the genuine offer of forgiveness in the face of wretched evil. This is what Jesus did, and if we care about the proclaiming and defending the gospel, we must be willing to do no less.

Article originally published at CrossExamined.org.

It seems that America is now locked in an endless loop of tension and violence. Many disaffected Americans are railing out at a government they see as being abusive and vindictive. Movements like “Black Lives Matter” have pitted some African-American (and other) citizens against police officers, in a vicious cycle of street demonstrations and police force.

In some ways, these tensions are not new, and can be traced all the way to the American Civil War, through segregation, the Civil Rights Movement up to today. Americans have always been deeply divided on issues of race, and equal rights.

Now, police are being targeted in random shootings by those who feel anger at what they view as a system of oppression and tyranny.

The question is, where will all of this end?

There are really two facets to this situation that must be explored if we hope to understand the roots of this predicament.

Racism and Prejudice

What very few people stop to consider is the roots of all so-called “racial” prejudice. As Bible-believing Christians, we believe that God “has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). From one man, and one woman, all of the more than seven billion people on planet earth have descended. That makes all of us related by blood. We are all part of the same race: The Human Race!

Racial prejudice comes mainly out of evolutionary teachings. If you study the roots of the Eugenics movement, you will see that it is based in the view that some people groups are more highly evolved than others. Very few people know the full title of Charles Darwin’s ground-breaking 1859 book on evolution. It is called, “On Origin of Species, by Way of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.”

Over 150 years of evolutionary teaching has saturated our culture, and has convinced many that we must struggle for the strongest races to survive. The solution to prejudice is found in the hope offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not only are we all equal in creation, and therefore equal in value, the Apostle Paul declared, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28).

Anarchy vs. Totalitarianism

The other consideration in this situation is the age-old struggle between a desire for freedom from authority (on the one hand) and a demand for supreme authority by the State (on the other). This tension has always existed in every society. There is a rogue spirit in humankind that wants to be free from the bonds of restriction and law. But a lawless society, where everyone makes up their own rules (moral relativism), and where people’s passions run unchecked (hedonism), is not tenable. No civilization can bear up under the weight of an antinomian mindset (a believe that all law is bad).

When a culture begins to shake itself from moral law, it soon finds itself at the mercy of an ever-encroaching government that seeks to provide stability and regulation. The response to anarchy is always totalitarianism, and the response to tyranny is almost always rebellion, which leads to the cycle of more tyranny.

This situation is only remedied when people recognize that there is a universal moral law that exists outside of themselves, and to which they are all subservient. Once again, we find the solution to both extremes within the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The entire “Sermon on the Mount,” puts external law in the only place where it ultimately works; inside the human heart.

Until the evil of the heart is addressed, we are simply trying to put a cultural bandage on a proverbial brain tumor. No amount of political posturing will make bad people want to do good. It is only when the human heart is changed by love that we will hope to see citizens desire to do good, rather than harm, to their neighbor. It is only when we forgive, rather than seeking another eye or tooth in retaliation for harm, that we can end the vicious cycle of bloodshed and violence.

Ultimately, Christianity provides a totally unique remedy in the history of ideas. Every other worldview teaches that we must solve our own problems through human effort and initiative. Christianity, in contrast, presents us as the heart of the problem, not the solution. The Bible insists that it is only through humility and repentance that we will find healing for our own souls, and then be able to extend that grace and healing to others.

May God grant us that grace of repentance and humility as we seek to walk through the turbulent days that lie ahead.

When interviewed on The View regarding the recent Orlando shootings, ABC correspondent Sara Haines repeated a sentiment common to liberal political pundits.

“Right now politicians, especially those that make law in the name of their faith need to step back for a second and say I respect you for your belief. Let’s remember that unless you keep that at home in your family where you can impress that on people, our politics need to remain without religion.” [i]

Does she have a point? Must Christians confine their religion to church buildings and homes? Of course not! In our country our government, laws, and social expectations are to a great degree public expressions of the Christian faith.

In the United States Christians have always worked openly in society:  creating institutions, influencing government policies, approving good acts and admonishing bad ones. Consider a few examples.

• Our very form of government, where law has primacy over executive decree, originates from the concept that God’s laws trump the king’s word. [ii]

• Our abolition of human slavery began with articles, preaching and petitioning. These created an environment that demanded the end of slavery. The resulting war finally settled the issue, but nothing would have been done but for Christian preaching on this unrighteousness. [iii]

• The 1960s Civil Rights movement had many Christians working to establish legal equality regardless of race. Many actors of the movement modeled their arguments, speeches and actions on how to act like Christ. [iv]

• For over 40 years the Pro-Life movement has protested the establishment of legal abortion, a “compelling government interest”. Christians claim a compelling interest in protecting unborn children from this government-sanctioned violence.

• For ages and ages Christians have founded and supported orphanages, hospitals and charitable societies. Large sums are asked for, and raised, for relief as soon as a calamity occurs, whether here or overseas. These gifts speaks loudly that “government charity is not really needed.” Since a government can’t be charitable – how can you be charitable with money you obtained through coercive taxation? – this “less government in charity” policy comes through nice and loud.

The wail of “Christians must not impose their beliefs on us” comes not from philosophical concerns but rather from fear of criticism. These are activists who see that Christian community is frustrating their aims. They’re afraid that that someone will actually ask why this or that policy is so compelling that all must be bulldozed into obedience.

So should you leave your religion at home? Certainly not! Doing so is dereliction of duty to Christ. Christians have a right, and divine responsibility, to continue to influence each part of the world they touch, whether people or property or public institutions.

Footnotes:

[i]       Sara was interviewed on the 06/13/16 episode of The View: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kristine-marsh/2016/06/13/abcs-sara-haines-conservative-christians-keep-your-religion-out

[ii]      Samuel Rutherford’s work Lex Rex established that a civil leader must be subject to law or he becomes a tyrant, a law unto himself. http://www.breakpoint.org/the-center/columns/viewpoint/15158-rex-lex

[iii]     D’Souza says modern slavery wouldn’t have ended were it not for Christians: http://townhall.com/columnists/dineshdsouza/2008/01/14/how_christians_ended_slavery

           John Coffey says much the same thing: http://www.jubilee-centre.org/the-abolition-of-the-slave-trade-christian-conscience-and-political-action-by-john-coffey/

           Origins of anti-slavery movement in USA: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/amabrel.htm

[iv]    The churches provided the civil rights leadership and resources to plan and engage the populace to regard blacks and whites as having equal legal and social rights. https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/kf/rel_Bernard_Lafayette.pdf

**Caution: Parental Guidance Suggested**

What the tragic events of last week did not need was the distraction posed by one of the organizers of the Dallas protest, Dr. Jeff Hood, the 32-year-old bearded, bespectacled white man who is effective at one thing: self-promotion. While Selma had Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an eloquent, dignified, and committed follower of Christ, Dallas had Dr. Hood, a narcissist committed to self-aggrandizement, sexual deviance, and syncretism.

After the shocking shootings of Dallas police officers, Hood—an admirer of Jeremiah Wright—could be found all over the airwaves, including on The Kelly File with Megyn Kelly.

Hood, a father of five young children, offers this description of himself on his website:

The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood is a Baptist pastor, theologian and activist living and working in Texas. A graduate of Auburn University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, University of Alabama and Creighton University, Dr. Hood also concluded a Doctorate of Ministry in Queer Theology at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. Dr. Hood was ordained at a church within the Southern Baptist Convention in 2006 and received standing in the United Church of Christ in 2015.

The author of ten books (The Queer: An Interaction with The Gospel of John, The Queering of an American Evangelical, The Sociopathic Jesus, The Year of the Queer, Jesus on Death Row, Frances, Last Words from Texas: Meditations from the Execution Chamber, The Rearing of an American Evangelical, The Courage to Be Queer and The Basilica of the Swinging D*cks)…In 2013, Dr. Hood was awarded PFLAG Fort Worth’s Equality Award for Activism….With deep soul and a belief that God is “calling us to something queerer,” Dr. Hood is a radical mystic and prophetic voice to a closed society.

Just two months ago, the Dallas Observer profiled Hood:

Hood says he’s anointed “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” “Jesus wasn’t a Christian” is one of his sayings. He thinks “Jesus has a vagina,” [and] “Jesus is queer” is one [of his sayings] that spurred hundreds of rebukes from Christians across Facebook, calling him a “false prophet,” a “charlatan,” and “nothing more than a left-wing activist.” Some of his former congregation put him in the ranks of scandalous TV evangelists like Jim Bakker.

…

He also suffers from bipolar disorder, which sometimes means hallucinations and bouts of paranoia.

After leaving the Southern Baptist denomination and purportedly seeking treatment for his mental illness, Hood started a church for homosexuals in a Denton, Texas homosexual bar that lasted a year. Former church members’ descriptions of Hood some remarkably like descriptions of cult leaders:

“After working within the church for several months as an ‘elder,’ it became apparent that a lot of the leader’s misogynistic white male privilege kept showing, regardless of how much he would hide it under a thin veil of faux hipster economic struggling.”…When various issues or statements regarding upsetting comments that could be perceived as misogynistic or offensive were brought to the leader’s attention, they were usually met with a defensive, self-pitying martyrdom which was served to give him immunity from any and all criticism.”

Another wrote, “No criticism of the pastor was allowed. If someone challenged his behavior, he told lies about them to the congregation. If someone brought up problematic elements of the church, they were immediately silenced. It wasn’t until I spoke with other people who had left that we began to realize the amount of lies that we had been told about [one another]. I left the church because I experienced firsthand the pastor’s lies, manipulation and lack of boundaries.

For a time, Hood was involved with the largest homosexual church in America, Cathedral of Hope United Church of Christ (UCC) in Dallas, but like so many of his endeavors, this relationship was short-lived. After Hood was arrested and briefly jailed in Ferguson, Missouri, where, according to Hood, he was one of the protest leaders, Hood hurled epithets at his former church leaders at the Cathedral of Hope, complaining that “ those chicken sh*t a**holes…didn’t even announce that I had been arrested at church.”

Hood and his wife Emily support their five children under five (including two sets of twins) by “being creative, she as an artist and he as a writer, but they also receive help from friends and Hood’s 88-year-old grandfather, who still doesn’t quite understand his grandson’s ministry.”

On his blog, a picture of a deeply troubled  man and heretic emerges.

Hood expresses his appreciation for the “public witness” of Reverend Charles Moore who lit himself on fire to express “his frustration with the United Methodist Church’s position on human sexuality, opposition to the death penalty, disdain for racism (especially in his hometown of Grand Saline) and his deep anger at Southern Methodist University’s decision to house the George W. Bush Presidential Center.”

Hood asserts that  “Jesus sinned. Jesus was a racist y’all.” He finds everything “[f]rom the historical personhood of Adam and Eve to ideas of substitutionary atonement to a literal hell to the impending return of Jesus” to be “really problematic doctrines.”

And here is how he concluded one of his sermons:

Love your neighbor…put down your gun.

Love your neighbor…open your borders.

Love your neighbor…embrace the revolutionary spirit of our age.

Love your neighbor…be queer.

Last December, Hood posted an obscene novella he’s penned, a perverse, poorly written tale that, like John Bunyan’s A Pilgrim’s Progress, has a main character  named “Christian” whose story begins with a sojourn in jail. Reading The Basilica of Swinging D*cks offers a glimpse into Hood’s spiritually darkened mind. The rambling story is replete with references to homoerotic sex and masturbation. The first-person narrator Christian describes even the church building in sacrilegious terms: “At the top of the Cathedral, we placed a phallic steeple shooting up to heaven with a cross coming out of the domed tip.”

With the first black president fomenting social and political division, with public school teachers indoctrinating children with an imbalanced picture of American history, and with rebellious syncretists preaching heresies in our churches, it’s no wonder that racial tensions are escalating. Hood, a mentally ill, narcissistic heretic deserves neither pulpits nor press conferences.

Read more about Black Lives Matter HERE.

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Obamacare is a complex regulation mandating universal insurance coverage. It also contains deliberate offense against Christians, requiring that everyone purchase insurance having “contraceptive coverage.” All employer health plans must provide this coverage. In practice this means plans that provide abortifacient products like IUDs and Plan B pills. [i]

But never fear, your religious objections will be catered to. An employer can avoid providing these products. All it must do is to fill out a little four page form. After that the contraceptive products are provided directly by the insurers and the employer is no longer in the loop. [ii] Everybody happy?

The Little Sisters of the Poor, which provides charitable services to elderly people, saw through this scheme right away. They recognized that they were still indirectly authorizing the provision of the abortifacients. They saw that they weren’t being allowed to select an insurer that itself wouldn’t provide them. The Little Sisters still felt culpable for possibly supplying abortifacients to its employees. So they objected both to providing the products and to filling out the little form. Their legal objection has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has asked for the parties to try again for a compromise solution. [iii]

What is this form, seemingly so unobtrusive and yet so objectionable? It’s a modern version of the pinch of incense offered to Caesar. Through it you affirm that your beliefs aren’t substantial enough to materially affect the world about you. After all, we can’t have religion affecting government policy, can we?

This is just another round of the fight about who will rule, Christ or Caesar. Compared to the troubles that Christians face in the Middle East or in Asia our troubles seem trivial. Yet these forms, the legal rulings against florists or proclamations about restrooms point the way to larger troubles. What can we do to keep our leaders from asking us to choose some invented “government compelling interest” [iv] over Christ?

First and always we must pray for national revival. Its coming will be God’s doing and His timing.

Next, remember that these are still the United States. Christians are not second class citizens, prohibited from advocating in society for Christ and his people. We can educate, petition, vote, organize, march, rally and otherwise tell and show our officials where they are stepping on our religious rights. We can also file lawsuits, just as the Little Sisters did, when the government demands an unrighteous obedience. Remember that judges also read election returns.

The church is already called to enlighten the world. We are a lamp set on a hill – not self-setting but put there by the Lord – providing light to all who are around it. [v] How will society know what is right or wrong unless we approve the right and admonish the wicked?

The U.S. Constitution encourages our advocacy. The First Amendment doesn’t say “separate your religion from politics”, it says “government, don’t interfere with religion”. [vi] Government must not favor a denomination but otherwise must get out of the way. This reading might shock you but it is what the amendment says.

If we don’t want to give to the government the things that are God’s then we will have to tell our politicians and judges – again – what they can’t touch. Telling them over and over again is a good start to reclaiming the public square for Christ. [vii] 

Footnotes:

[i]       One provision in the Obamacare law mandates that health insurance cover “additional preventive care and screenings” for women, as specified in regulations to be issued by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  PPACA (not in service at this moment) 2713, (a)(4) The contraceptive mandate is result of HHS regulation.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act#Coverage_for_contraceptives

[ii]      HHS administrative rules provides for birth control services even if the employer doesn’t want to directly provide them.  https://newrepublic.com/article/100636/obama-announces-contraception-accommodation-bishops-catholic-hospital-exemption

[iii]     The Little Sisters case before the Supreme Court was sent case back to Appellate Court to negotiate a compromise.  http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/435446/little-sisters-poor-just-beat-obama-administration-supreme-court

[iv]    Obama administration policies have asserted a compelling interest in reproductive rights. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-woodman/hobby-lobby_b_5029820.html

[v]     Matt. 5:14-16

[vi]    First portion of text: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, …

[vii]   James 2:26

Conservative friends, if it weren’t clear to you already that the halcyon days for theologically orthodox people of faith in America are over, read the ominous, hostile, and arrogant words of Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell professor of law at Harvard Law School:

The culture wars are over; they lost, we won…. For liberals, the question now is how to deal with the losers in the culture wars. That’s mostly a question of tactics. My own judgment is that taking a hard line (“You lost, live with it”) is better than trying to accommodate the losers, who—remember—defended, and are defending, positions that liberals regard as having no normative pull at all. Trying to be nice to the losers didn’t work well after the Civil War, nor after Brown. (And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.) I should note that LGBT activists in particular seem to have settled on the hard-line approach, while some liberal academics defend more accommodating approaches. When specific battles in the culture wars were being fought, it might have made sense to try to be accommodating after a local victory, because other related fights were going on, and a hard line might have stiffened the opposition in those fights. But the war’s over, and we won.

Conservatives are the equivalent of racists and Nazis because they believe human beings whose lives begin at conception have a right to exist and that marriage has an intrinsic nature central to which is sexual differentiation. No more need for politically expedient rhetorical deception about tolerance and diversity. Carpe Diem, Tushnet proclaims. To the victors belong the spoils, which to “progressives” like Tushnet just might include the presumptive “right” to abrogate the religious liberty of conservative losers.

What accounts for Tushnet’s cocksureness? Tushnet makes clear that it derives from the current composition of the courts:

Several generations of law students and their teachers grew up with federal courts dominated by conservatives. Not surprisingly, they found themselves wandering in the wilderness, looking for any sign of hope. The result: Defensive-crouch constitutionalism, with every liberal position asserted nervously, its proponents looking over their shoulders for retaliation by conservatives….

It’s time to stop. Right now more than half of the judges sitting on the courts of appeals were appointed by Democratic presidents…the same appears to be true of the district courts. And, those judges no longer have to be worried about reversal by the Supreme Court if they take aggressively liberal positions.

Now that the judiciary is controlled by liberals, Tushnet argues that “Liberals should be compiling lists of cases to be overruled at the first opportunity on the ground that they were wrong the day they were decided,” and that they should “Aggressively exploit the ambiguities and loopholes in unfavorable precedents that aren’t worth overruling” [emphasis Tushnet’s].

Tushnet clerked for Thurgood Marshall and was instrumental in shaping and articulating Marshall’s position in Roe v. Wade which, in turn, influenced Harry Blackmun. Tushnet, in a  “significant letter” written for Marshall and sent to Harry Blackmun said this:

I am inclined to agree that drawing the line at viability accommodates the interests at stake better than drawing it at the end of the first trimester. Given the difficulties which many women may have in believing that they are pregnant and in deciding to seek an abortion, I fear that the earlier date may not in practice serve the interests of those women, which your opinion does seek to serve.

…

It is implicit in your opinion that at some point the State’s interest in preserving the potential life of the unborn child overrides any individual interests of the women. I would be disturbed if that point were set before viability, and I am afraid that the opinion’s present focus on the end of the first trimester would lead states to prohibit abortions completely at any later date.

Professor Tushnet, a prolific writer and non-observant Jew, is the father of Eve Tushnet, a prolific writer and theologically orthodox Catholic who identifies as a lesbian but because of her deep faith, has chosen a life of celibacy. Eve Tushnet was “raised somewhere between atheism and Reform Judaism,” and “entered the Catholic Church in 1998, during her sophomore year at Yale University.”

Is Mark Tushnet’s daughter one of the losers against whom Professor Tushnet seeks a hard line?

The Obama Administration’s executive overreach, criticized even by liberal legal scholar Jonathan Turley, has alerted many conservatives to the imbalance of power between the legislative and executive branches which in theory should be co-equal. “Progressives” are taking their gloves off and putting their jackboots on. They’re hungry and seeking to devour whatever morsels of liberty conservatives yet retain. Perhaps Tushnet’s clanging voice will be the alarm needed to arouse slumbering conservatives before their plate is empty and progressives arrive at our church doors slavering at the cup and gnawing at the host.

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“So, what is your relationship with your father like?”

As a volunteer chaplain for our county’s juvenile detention center, I asked this question about three hundred times over the course of about six years. I only recall two occasions where a young inmate told me that he had a good relationship with his father.

What was interesting to me was that in our county there really was no demographic consistency that you could point to that would explain youth crime. We had Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans. Economically, we had upper class, middle class and lower class (the rich youth would often steal, which was ironic). There were Christians (mainly), Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Atheist. They came from urban, suburban and rural settings. The only absolute consistency was that there was no healthy relationships with their fathers.

On Mother’s Day, nearly all of the inmates would send cards to (and receive cards or letters from) their mothers and/or grandmothers. But Father’s Day was simply a non-event.

Many never met their biological fathers. Many had abusive step-fathers, or lived with a revolving door of men coming in and out of their lives. Some lived with their fathers, but their dads were too preoccupied with work or other responsibilities to take time for them. The conclusion I reached, from my own observation, was that the lack of a father’s guidance was the single-most dominant factor in juvenile crime.

The Influence of a Father

Some time back, I read a study in a news magazine, where school students were asked which academic subject was the most important. It turns out, surprisingly, that all of the students gave the exact same response! No, they didn’t all choose the same subject in their answers, but the underlying reason for that choice was exactly the same. The most important academic subject that you could learn, according to school students, was whatever subject their father helped them with for homework. So if their father tutored them in Math, then Math was the most important subject. If Science, then the students said Science, and so on.

The reason for this is that children intuitively understand that their father has limited time, and if he is going to take his precious time and help a child learn something, it must be very important (at least in the mind of his child). This speaks to me of how important it is for us as fathers to be intentional about how we spend our time investing in our children.

Shortly after reading that report, I had a conversation with a man after church one Sunday who had three adult children. He proudly informed me, “Israel, over the years there was one thing that I made sure to impress upon my children. If there was one thing I really wanted them to embrace, and learn to love, it was sports! And they have! All of them are huge sports fans, just like me. They played all kinds of sports, we watched lots of sports on television, and even had season tickets to the local stadium games. Yep, they are now teaching their children to love sports as well.”

While I recognize some of the benefits of organized sports, I had to wonder about the wisdom of promoting sports as such a high value in life. If a father has one chance to pass on values and beliefs to his children, he had better be mindful and selective with what he chooses to emphasize.

God Give Us Men!

As a young man, I grew up with a very limited fatherly influence. My parents divorced when I was six, and I saw my father only one weekend a month until I was fifteen, and then not at all. From six to fifteen, I lived with a physically abusive step-father. Today, I am a blessed father of nine children! By the grace of God, I have been able to break the cycle of abuse and dysfunction and my children are able to live in a peaceful home with two parents who love them.

I believe that when men turn their hearts to their wives and children, and commit to be godly servant-leaders in their own homes, we will see the beginning of the stabilization of society. Consider the many areas of society impacted by fatherless homes:

Read more HERE.

I strongly encourage churches and civic institutions to do everything they can to train, equip and encourage men to take seriously their roles as husbands and fathers. The future of our nation, in many ways, depends upon it (see Malachi 4:6 & Luke 1:17).

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Rev. Franklin Graham is bringing his Decision America Tour to Springfield. He plans to present the Gospel and challenge Christians to live out their faith at home, in public and at the ballot box.  Many faith leaders in Illinois are supporting the June 14th rally and are working for a big turnout on the steps of the state capitol so that revival can spread throughout the Land of Lincoln.

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Written by Teri Paulson

There is a scene in the movie 1984  in which Winston is reminded of this statement that he wrote in his diary: “Freedom is the freedom to say 2 + 2 = 4.” An updated version might say, “Freedom is the freedom to call a man a man and a woman a woman.”

There’s a sense in which we surrendered this battle a long time ago when we quietly and foolishly capitulated to the expulsion of God from government and public policy. It seemed so harmless then.

But government recognition of God is the lynchpin of freedom. Once a government stops recognizing God as an authority over itself it is only a matter of time before it stops acknowledging the existence of any morality external to itself that is binding upon its actions. Unrestrained by God and his moral law, government officials are free to make up the rules as they go along. Stated simply, government without God becomes God. Citizens get whatever liberties the people who happen to be in power at the time decide to give them. Welcome to America in the 21st century.

Christian business-owners are forced to participate in homosexual “weddings” or risk losing their livelihood. Laws are passed and edicts issued to force us to pretend that men are women and women are men. If Gov. Bruce Rauner signs SB 1564 into law pro-life doctors and nurses will be forced to discuss the “benefits of abortion” with their patients. Freedom of conscience and the right to speak and live in obedience to truth is on the verge of obliteration. Will anyone miss it when it’s gone?

I’m not sure they will.

We’re about to lose these rights in part because we haven’t been exercising them. Ironically, the problem is also the solution. God’s truth in the public square is still what is desperately needed  whether it staves off national disaster or not. Unfortunately, what could be a shining moment for the church is looking more and more like a non-event. Where are the letters to the editor from local church leaders? Where are the pastors speaking out at local school board and civic meetings? Where are the sermons preparing us for the persecution that’s all but inevitable? What’s the plan, oh Mighty Men of God?

My greatest fear is that the plan is to do nothing, say nothing, stand for nothing. Our biggest failing is not intolerance. It’s indifference. Are we our brothers’ keepers or not? Cain thought that was a throwaway question. Do we?

Two plus two is about to equal five.  What’s the plan, oh mighty men of God?

ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to Illinois Governor Rauner, urging him to uphold religious freedom and conscience rights for medical personnel in Illinois.  Ask him to veto SB 1564 and the tyranny it represents.

After you send an email, please also call the Governor’s office at (217) 782-0244 or (312) 814-2121. Once you’ve done this, please pray that Gov. Rauner and his staff will understand how coercive and unjust this legislation is.

Teri Paulson is the Director of Women’s Discipleship New Hope Community Church, Palatine, IL

Those who deny the existence of their Creator are delusional.

This is not an insult. It’s not a personal attack. It’s not a pejorative.

It’s a fact.

They’re also “fools.”

God’s Word declares, “The fool hath said in his heart ‘there is no God’” (Psalm 14).

When the Creator calls God-deniers “fools,” He’s not saying they’re stupid clowns. Merriam Webster defines “fool” as “a person lacking in judgment or prudence.”

Psalm 19:1 observes: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Romans 1:20 likewise notes, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

Yet excuses they make.

In view of the everlasting consequence of carrying God-denial to the grave, such excuses exemplify a distinct “lack in judgment or prudence.”

It’s foolishness.

My friend Ray Comfort is founder and CEO of Living Waters. He’s a best-selling author, movie producer and co-host (with actor Kirk Cameron) of the award-winning television program “The Way of the Master,” seen in 200 countries.

Recently, Ray contacted me and sent me a review copy of a new documentary he’s releasing this summer called, “The Atheist Delusion: Why Millions Deny the Obvious.” He asked me to watch it and give him some feedback. My only regret is that I waited so long to do so. To say the film is powerful is a gross understatement.

“Ray, please forgive me for not getting back to you sooner,” I responded. “I’ve just had a chance to finally watch this. I’m a 260-pound former professional boxer and ex-cop who’s sitting here balling like a baby. This is, bar none, the most compelling and comprehensive piece of its kind. I guess I can’t even say ‘of its kind’ because it’s totally unique. I’ve never seen anything so comprehensive. It’s visually stunning, winsome, compassionate, intellectually unassailable and moving to the extreme. Somehow you managed, in about an hour, to make the case, beyond any reasonable doubt, for the Creator God, and bring it home to the Truth of Christ. This is your masterpiece. Let me know how I can help you get it out far and wide.”

I mean it when I say “The Atheist Delusion” is the most persuasive and captivating answer to atheist questions I’ve ever seen on film. Without giving too much away, let me just say that non-believers and believers alike will be moved emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. I have no doubt that many who claim atheism at the beginning of the film, will be left well on their way to admitting His existence and infinite glory toward film’s end.

Back in April I wrote a column first published at WND and later at CNSNews. The piece, titled, “The Big Bang Blows Atheism Sky High: Even Science May Eventually Catch Up to God’s Word,” was then aggregated and featured on the main page of Yahoo News where it went viral. In the column I detailed some of the foolishness inherent within the belief that everything came from nothing – that there is no God – a subject I delve into deeper in my new book, “Hating Jesus: The American Left’s War on Christianity.”

“The manifest intentionality and fine-tuning of all creation reveals design of breathtaking complexity,” I wrote. “The Creator is of incalculable intelligence and infinite splendor. As I see it, atheism provides a case study in willful suspension of disbelief – all to escape, as the God-denier imagines it, accountability for massaging the libertine impulse.”

And so, as does world famous atheist Richard Dawkins, they concoct an idol of their own making – a false god, easy to avoid; a “god” who is “arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Indeed, it’s been said that the atheist position is simple and twofold: 1) There is no God; 2) I hate Him.

After watching “The Atheist Delusion,” viewers will be left no more wiggle room as to the undeniable question of God’s existence.

All that remains will be to either love Him – or continue hating Him.

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Written by Kelly Thomas

“I wasn’t expecting you to be so intelligent because I knew how religious you were.”

The speaker was a teammate on my high school’s debate team. A self-proclaimed atheist who prided himself on his intellectual superiority, he pulled me aside after I won a debate tournament. He phrased it offhandedly as a kind of pleasant surprise: Catholic girl shocks with ability to string two original thoughts together.

The Truth About God & Man at Georgetown

Fast-forward three years, in my Georgetown university apartment, a crackling debate on religion with two agnostic roommates and a fallen-away Catholic guy. I left the room briefly and heard him say quietly that he “respected people of faith” but was “sorry they weren’t confident and satisfied enough with their own merit” to not have to lean on these narratives. My roommates murmured their pitying assent.

In the view of so many ‘accomplished’ American students, the two-thousand-year old Catholic Church is little more than a comforting fable perpetuated by such intellectually compromised men as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, and Cardinal John Henry Newman. (If only someone had told the early martyrs. They might have avoided being shredded by Roman lions by choosing another fairy tale in which to seek solace from worldly woes.)

If these had just been acquaintances, their condescension likely would have infuriated me. But they were my friends; I knew them too well to feel anything besides heartbreak.

One was the same girl who would get blackout drunk every weekend, dissolving into tears as she stumbled back from whatever party I had been summoned to collect her from. And the guy? Shortly after this conversation, he withdrew from school for an eighteen-month leave of absence to treat his ongoing battle with depression.

Divorcing Faith & Reason

Of course, religious communities are not immune from alcoholism or depression, nor is every nonreligious person doomed to a life of self-medication. But these vignettes speak to a haunting development, which has plagued modernity since the Enlightenment. It is what a Georgetown chaplain referred to as the “intellectual over-development and spiritual under-development of the world.”

In the view of the modern world, faith and reason are no longer to be seen as working in tandem. Rather, one is the result of superstitious ignorance; the other, of intellectual rigor. Where once we were the ones to be judged for our failings, now it is God that we have put on trial. Doubting Thomas, once scorned, has become the ideal apostle for the modern world, praised unceasingly for his enlightened refusal to believe that which he could not see.

The result? A thick layer of existential angst slowly settling over the secular West. Self-help books fly off the shelf, written by “experts” who claim to have found “the way” to fulfillment and happiness. For some reason their PhDs are easier to swallow than the searing words of a carpenter from Judea.

Weekly Yoga and a Juice Cleanse

Such ‘progress’ has been closely accompanied by record-breaking antidepressant consumption. Men and women jump from fad to fad, giving themselves whiplash and bringing their hapless children along for the unsettling ride.

I went to university with these children, the inheritors of a world which has tried to do away with any notion of Truth. They have been raised to believe that they, on their own, and perhaps with a weekly yoga session and a juice cleanse, can find all the answers and achieve inner peace. So they roll into college, with puffed chests and lost eyes, looking about them and frantically latching onto anything that may give them any sense of solid footing.

Some do “figure it out” or at least enough to attain a surface level of happiness. But far too many, in their desperate attempts to avoid anything reeking of the surrender of religion, look for answers in kegs, or by having sex with strangers, or diving into toxic relationships — anything to feel less alone.

Is it any wonder then that my friends in that apartment living room sank further into a maelstrom of alcohol and depression, even as they congratulated themselves on their intelligence and independence?

They were doing precisely what they’d been told to do, which was to trust their own flawed selves to discover what would make them truly happy. The heart-wrenching results were no better than could be expected.

Millennials and the Nameless Enemy

The fact is, that all the old evils in the world have remained, but we have steadily and systematically been pushing away our knowledge of the Good — because we cannot see it, so therefore we cannot trust it.

As Chesterton phrased it: “[we] fell once, and in falling gained knowledge of good and of evil. Now we have fallen a second time, and only the knowledge of evil remains to us.”

Today, evil goes un-feared. We can feel its encroaching darkness, but for so many of my peers, there is no knowledge of the light to fend off the nameless enemy.

Article originally published at ReginaMag.com.

My family and I recently had the opportunity to hear about the great work being done in South Sudan by a man named William Levi.  During his presentation, in which he detailed many of the projects underway in Borongole (a city of 5,000) he stated that the Christians in South Sudan are praying for Christians here in America.

My mind focused quickly on those words.  They are praying for us?!?!

Levi explained that the United States is the beacon of hope for the entire world.  In the eyes of many around the globe, the world’s well-being is, in large part, dependent on the continued well-being of the United States.  Surprisingly, Levi wasn’t primarily talking about the monetary wealth of this country.  He was referring to the long-established liberties of our nation.

His comments reinforced for me the validity and urgency of our mission and shed new light on the importance of what we are doing in the public square.  Our efforts to defend Judeo-Christian values at home in Illinois and to preserve religious liberty are not just for our benefit and our posterity.  The work we are committed to is so much greater. I think we often fail to understand how our liberty not only affects our immediate neighbors and fellow believers whom we are called to love, but the free and robust exercise of our liberties directly impacts our global neighbors and brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world.

Romans 12:2 states: “…Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”  The advance of Christianity turned the Roman world on its head!  From a position of political impotence, early Christians made such a profound impact, not only by spreading the Gospel but by living the Gospel, that they literally upended the corrupt and perverse Roman culture that surrounded them.

Likewise, by the manner in which we live our lives, we also are charged to fulfill Jesus’ command to “disciple the nations.” (Matthew 28:19)  In essence, today’s believers are called to be world-changers, just like the first century Christians.

Viewed in light of these scriptures, our dedication to preserving liberty, specifically religious liberty, is paramount and far-reaching.  In the 21st century, Christianity is spreading and penetrating farther and deeper than ever before – in Muslim strongholds across the globe, in Africa, and throughout South Sudan – precisely because Americans have been afforded the liberties to live out the Gospel as they pursue religious training, missionary work, and humanitarian efforts at home and abroad.

Christian love and genuine concern for others compel us to exercise our right to religious liberty as we organize food pantries, provide homeless shelters, become foster parents, operate pregnancy resource centers, and reach out to those struggling with immoral sexual behaviors.

Our Constitutionally-mandated right to religious liberty is also why we encourage Christians in Illinois to take an active role in the governance of our communities, because government, like marriage and family, is an institution God created for His glory and for the well-being of mankind.

While the 2016 Presidential election season has been extremely frustrating and indicates, yet again, that we have reached a new low in our social and political culture, it’s time we face facts – the race for the White House is not as important as we tend to make it out to be.  Truth be told, believers and churches throughout America have a far greater impact on our culture than the influence of any Chief Executive who occupies the Oval Office.

Yet, regardless of the messiness of the process, the depravity of our culture, or the apathy of some Christians, those of us who are wholeheartedly dedicated to following Christ must be willing to stand firm and do our part to make a difference.  Dereliction of duty is reprehensible, even when the duty is tough.  And dereliction of duty is especially reprehensible when I recall William Levi’s statement – the Christians of South Sudan are praying for us! (And we should pray for them!)

Though our task may seem hopeless or beyond our ability, we are being lifted up before the throne of grace by the prayers of the body of Christ in South Sudan.  Praise God for the fervent prayers of these believers!  Praise God for the prayers and support of believers here in Illinois!  Praise God for the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us!

At all times and in all situations, we can faithfully accomplish whatever task the Lord sets before us because we are equipped and empowered by His word, by His Spirit, and by the prayers of His people.  When we rest in God’s sovereignty, we readily relinquish our fear of failure or need to control, and instead follow where He leads, confidently obeying and entrusting the results to Him.  May you be a blessing to those in your home, in your church, and in the public square as you live a life transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Written by Pastor Calvin Lindstrom

To any discerning Christian it should be obvious that we have serious problems in our nation – morally, culturally, politically, and financially.

There are no simple or quick solutions.

While it is wonderful to see Franklin Graham and others call for gatherings of prayer, our problems are not going to be resolved by going to a massive prayer meeting or revival meeting.

We are under heavy judgment. Many in our land struggle to see it, because they don’t feel it directly. This may also be true in part because God still has been very gracious to the United States. We have not experienced the judgment that other nations in the 20th century have experienced. I am very thankful for this. However, in part because we have not tasted incredible suffering, we are still very soft. There are some Christians in our nation who have come from other countries where there is great suffering for the faith, and increasingly there are Christians who are learning this in our own nation; but for the most part we have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin (Heb. 12:4).

When the prophet Habakkuk realized the judgment that Judah was going to receive, he was initially not able to understand how God was going to punish his wicked people with an even more wicked nation.

You are of purer eyes than to behold evil,
And cannot look on wickedness.
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?  ~Habakkuk 1:13

One of the answers that the LORD gave to Habakkuk who wrestled with these difficult issues is found in the next chapter.

Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith. ~Habakkuk 2:4

This is not an easy, quick solution to all of our problems. It is something much greater – it is the way of life that must be embraced in the face of judgment.

Friends, there are no easy solutions, and our trials may well deepen in the days ahead, but this does not mean that we do nothing or that we just roll over and pretend that we are dead. As we have already noted from Habakkuk 2, the just shall live by faith. The just shall continue to devote themselves to prayer (Rom. 12:12). The just must look for ways to speak and share God’s truth. The just will continue to commit themselves unto God unto whom vengeance belongs, seeking to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:19, 21).

As I stated earlier, a prayer meeting or 40 days of prayer are not the silver-bullet solutions that will remedy all our ills. But I would encourage you to at least set apart the first Tuesday of every month to devote as much time as possible to prayer and even fasting as the Lord would lead and allow. Seek God’s face, not merely out of obligation, but as a testimony that we live by faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Will you join with me and others in the great work of intercessory prayer?

And since, if we are honest, we know how weak we can be in prayer, will you not join me in renewing your dedication to the reading and studying of the Word of God? We desperately need to often be renewed or revived in God’s truth if we are going to live a life of faith. (Psalm 119:25, 107, 154)

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all
that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations,
forever and ever.  Amen. ~Ephesians 3:20-21

Rev. Lindstrom is Pastor of the Church of Christian Liberty of Arlington Heights, and the executive director of the Christian Emergency League. He and his wife are currently homeschooling their four children. He has a great passion for Christian education at home and in Christian schools.