Fight for religious freedom
Christians must stand against the growing tide of attacks on religious liberties
This past year will be remembered for many extraordinary events. From the Black Lives Matter movement to the Hillary Clinton email scandal to the earthquake in Nepal, this past year has been filled with
memorable and controversial moments.
Worship — Muslims have been the recipients of attacks on their right to worship. Google Images
For Christians, the most important development of 2015 has been the increased threats against religious freedom. For example, bills across the country that sought to provide for religious freedom, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, came under much scrutiny. However, perhaps the most startling attacks on religious freedom from this past year have been against Muslims.
As the nation witnessed the rise of ISIS, the second wind of Al-Qaeda, and terrorist attacks both at home and abroad, an anti-Islamic sentiment grew. A YouGov/Huffpost poll from December found that 58 percent of Americans had an unfavorable view of Islam. These fears have only increased as President Barack Obama and his administration continue to seem incompetent and out of touch with the rise of radical Islamic terrorism.
As a result of these fears, a number of disturbing attacks on Muslims have occurred, including attacks on mosques, calls to wiretap all of their houses of worship, and proposals to place them in internment camps. These attacks should sound alarms in the minds of everyone who values religious freedom, especially Evangelical Christians.
Christians hold to the biblical view that everyone is created in the image of God and therefore has “certain unalienable rights.” Among these foundational rights is the right to freely worship however a person feels led. This is what motivated our nation’s Founding Fathers to include the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the government will not infringe upon a person’s “free exercise” of their religious beliefs. This includes not merely Christians, but Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons and any other religion. In light of this, we as Christians must be the first to stand up against breaches of religious liberties around the world.
“These are days that will require courage, conviction, and clarity of vision,” Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said. “We are in a fight for the most basic liberties God has given humanity, every single one of us, made in his image.”
This is by no means a call to accept Muslims and those of other faiths as true worshipers of God. The Bible is clear that it is only through faith in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross that one can truly know God. John 14:6 states, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (ESV).
However, this should not stop us from fighting for the religious freedom of every person.
“It is not in spite of our gospel conviction, but precisely because of it, that we should stand for religious liberty for everyone,” Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote in The Washington Post.
Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” includes the call to fight for the religious freedom of all.
We as Christians should not be so naïve as to believe these attacks could not quickly turn against us. Christians throughout history, from the early church fathers to the Reformation leaders, have lived as minorities and under oppression.
“Make no mistake,” Moore warns in his article. “A government that can shut down mosques simply because they are mosques can shut down Bible studies because they are Bible studies.”
Sutherland is the opinion editor.