Author and apologist Frank Turek speaks at Standing for Freedom Center event

Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center welcomed apologist and author Frank Turek to the Towns Auditorium in the School of Business on Feb. 21 to speak on moral issues in today’s culture.

Turek has authored and co-authored five books on various political and religious topics and is the president of CrossExamined.org, a nonprofit ministry that aims to help young people who become skeptical of their faith. He is also a former Navy aviator.

Turek’s presentation was titled, “Why we can’t NOT Legislate Morality.” He discussed the topic of objective morality and how it applies to issues such as abortion and gender dysphoria.

Using a football analogy, he said rules or guidelines are derived from something outside of the game itself; the players do not make the rules but must follow them regardless. The same is true in life with morality.

“The rules and the purpose of life comes from outside life,” he said. “It comes from the Creator, the standard beyond us. He says, ‘This is the right way to live, and this is the wrong way to live.’ If He doesn’t exist, there is no right way to live. Everything is just a matter of opinion.”

Turek said that even claiming that absolute truth does not exist necessitates that it does.

Using Matthew 7, Turek addressed whether Christians should judge the actions of others. He noted that Christians must be willing to judge others but must also accept that they will also be judged by the same standard. As a result, they should only judge others with love.

He also spoke about the ongoing debate on whether Christians should involve themselves in politics and answered this question with a resounding “yes.” He said that if Christians fail to get involved in political issues, then America will slowly creep toward totalitarianism and extreme censorship.“Politics affects almost every aspect of your life,” Turek said. “The rules that are made in Washington, in Richmond, in your localities, affect almost every aspect of your life. Politics affects your church, family, health, money, business, freedom, property, school, safety, the poor, the unborn, evangelism, your faith behavior, everyone and everywhere.”

“If you think that the Gospel is important, you better think that politics is important because politics affects your ability to live and preach the Gospel,” he added.

Citing examples from the Bible such as Joseph, Moses, Esther, and Jesus, he demonstrated how followers of God have constantly been involved in political discourse throughout history. Jesus himself debated the Pharisees, who were in many ways the political leaders for Israel.

Turek highlighted some of the major political issues that Christians should support and refuse to compromise, namely being pro-life on abortion and defending the freedom of speech. He said that while he would not decide to support someone solely for their pro-life stance, he would not support anyone who supported abortion.

“Being pro-life doesn’t necessarily qualify someone as a good candidate. … However, being pro-abortion necessarily disqualifies someone as a good candidate,” Turek said. “I’m not a one-issue voter, but I am a one-issue disqualifier. If you can’t see that the right to life is the right to all other rights, I can’t trust you on anything else.”

On the topic of free speech, he recalled being fired by Cisco and Bank of America because of books that he had written about same-sex marriage, and he argued that Christians should not be afraid to speak the truth of the Gospel.

“We should treat everybody, regardless of their sex life or what they do, with respect because they are made in the image of God, but that doesn’t mean that we have to agree with them, and it doesn’t mean they have to agree with us either,” he said.

Ultimately, Turek claimed that the Church is responsible for much of the evil that exists in the world because of its refusal to denounce issues that go against the Bible.

Instead of conceding that Christians should agree with the actions of the secular world, Turek said that Christians should show honest love for nonbelievers. This love does not necessitate approval.

“When we tell people what they want to hear, we sacrifice them for our benefit,” he said. “When we tell people what they need to hear, we’re sacrificing ourselves for their benefit. Why do we tell people what they want to hear? So they don’t get mad at us. So, we don’t get any blowback. But when we tell people what they need to hear, we’ll take the blowback out of love for them.”

The Standing for Freedom Center exists to advance and defend the unchanging principles of freedom for the next generation. Learn about upcoming events, watch interviews, and listen to the “Give Me Liberty” podcast at StandingforFreedom.com.