Why should you care about the growing attacks on our
religious freedom?
If your church or family hasn’t been impacted, why should you care?
Because the First Amendment’s emphatic protection of religious liberty is the key to upholding all our other rights. If it falls, every other freedom may tumble with it.
Think about this: A government that supports freedom of religion acknowledges that man is not the highest authority. That kind of government is more likely to restrain itself from infringing upon free speech, self-defense, and other rights that God has given us.
The Bible gives support to the concept of religious liberty. For example, Jesus taught that we should “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). The phrase “the things that are God’s” means that government should respect our right to practice our religion.
While Caesar’s image was on the currency, God’s image is on us (Genesis 1:26). We are accountable to Him for our beliefs and actions that stem from those beliefs—and government should honor that.
That’s why the First Amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”
Does that mean anyone can do whatever they want in the name of their religion? Is the government, as some claim, not allowed to stop the murder of an unborn child if it occurs as part of The Satanic Temple’s religious ritual?
No, there are boundaries even to religious freedom. The founders of American government—who wrote and ratified the First Amendment—affirmed the principle that God has given government authority to “punish those who do evil,” such as murder (1 Peter 2:14). They clearly believed that God didn’t intend religious liberty to be a license to do evil.
It is of paramount importance, therefore, that each of us knows how our candidates define good and evil and whether they understand the authority and limits of government. As God said in Isaiah 5:20,23, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil … who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!”
Friend, iVoterGuide is dedicated to helping you and other voters discern what your candidates believe.
Religious Liberty Under Fire
Many people of faith, especially Christians, are experiencing such a twisting of good and evil in our country. The main attack against religious liberty today comes through pressure to accept the LGBTQ “doctrine” of sexual anarchy. Dr. Jim Garlow points out in his book, Well Versed–Biblical Answers to Today’s Tough Issues, that this topic “has become the vortex for the crushing of the first portions of America’s precious Bill of Rights—the freedom of religion and of speech.”
And who can forget the COVID mandates where churches were forced to close because they were “not essential,” while liquor stores could remain open! In violation of your conscience, you must bake the wedding cake, refrain from biblical fellowship, take the vaccine, use the preferred pronouns, or else.
After our religious freedom falls, what will be next to go? I’d rather not find out, which is why I will continue to stand for religious liberty within the boundaries of the Judeo-Christian understanding of right and wrong upon which this country was founded.
I will stand through exercising my First Amendment rights, and through the people I elect to represent me at all levels of government.
The freedom to live according to our faith in every arena, including politics, is under attack. So is the biblical understanding of the boundaries of right and wrong. But these still stand, thanks in large part to a firewall of people elected by Judeo-Christian voters like yourself.
