Wednesday, September 23, 2015
By Dr. Karen Swallow Prior
The following is an excerpt from the interview Dr. Prior had with Jeb Bush:
Here is the conversation we had while riding across the city whose landscape bears the imprint of Jerry Falwell’s conservative political legacy. Once we arrive at the airport, he offers me a fist bump, and he’s off—though not yet running.
Of all the places where you might have given a commencement address, what drew you to Liberty University?
I was drawn to this campus because of the incredible success of the university and its importance in the faith community. We made this arrangement [to give the commencement address] in December. I wanted to speak about religious liberty because I think it’s becoming more important as an issue in our country. And in these five months since, we’ve already seen that play out in a lot of ways in terms of Christians overseas being persecuted, killed, beheaded, the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe and here at home. The difficulty of trying to balance questions of discrimination and religious conscience was something I wanted to express my views on.
Is there any American religious liberty issue that seems particularly pressing right now?
I think it’s that in our increasingly secular world, it’s okay to be a person of faith so long as you don’t act on it. But religious freedom is not for when faith acted on passively, but when it’s acted on actively. That’s when there need to be protections…
For the full interview: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/may-web-only/jeb-bush-talks-religious-liberty-at-liberty.html