It's Not About Right to Religion, It's About the Right to Connect with God

National Public Radio recently ran a story about the conflict between the law of the land, The Affordable Care Act, and the religious beliefs and practices of the Catholic church, which doesn't believe in the use of birth control. The premise of the story is what happens, and what should happen, when one's religious views run contrary to the law of the land. While I am glad that NPR has chosen to highlight the consequences American Christians are facing for holding to their faith, the piece misses fundamental truths about God, man, and freedom.

The U.S. Constitution prohibits Congress (and by extension, the state governments) from making a law respecting the establishment of religion, or the free exercise thereof. This was the first right listed in the Bill of Rights, and for good reason. Those who colonized America often did so to escape religious persecution in Europe. Further, the founding fathers remembered the days under British rule, when personal liberties had become rare.

So, in the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers affirmed their belief in a Creator, and that the Creator had endowed all men with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At the core of these rights is the freedom to determine who you are, what you believe, and your sense of right and wrong. These freedoms were affirmed and protected, because the founding fathers knew that government could not connect people to their Creator, nor could it coerce the worship of Him. Each man must connect to God on his own.

Their intent, was for you to be able to freely seek out God, and discover His plan for your life. You were then free to pursue that plan as long as you wanted.

Fast forward nearly two and a half centuries, and we have a law passed that requires Catholic ministries to provide coverage for something their doctrine opposes... contraceptives. Meanwhile, we have courts in Colorado and New Mexico forcing business owners to partake in same-sex weddings, which are a violation of their faiths. In its decision against a wedding photographer who refused to photograph a same-sex wedding, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that part of being an American involves doing things that violate your own conscience.

I wonder if those justices have read the founding documents of our country. I wonder if they realize that the Constitution was written in such a way as to protect our right to follow our conscience. You see, many who support the New Mexico Supreme Court's decision to force a wedding photographer to participate in a same-sex wedding, which violates her Christian faith, don't see what the big deal is. After all, the court didn't hinder her going to church or participating in her religion. It merely required her to do something she disagreed with, in the interest of stamping out discrimination. However, in doing so, the requirement was set forth by the government that would force this photographer to do something that would shatter her relationship with God. It's a very serious matter.

You see, faith begins when you repent from your sin and trust Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. That is a change made inside your heart, and no government entity can take it away from you. That faith is then manifest in how you live... which involves participating in God's religion, the Christian church. Any attempt to regulate your involvement in the church, or any attempt to compel you to sin, is a violation of the founding father's affirmation that you have the right to freely connect with God. And that's what the secularist doesn't understand.

Religion is not a social club or a civic organization. It is an expression of  the innermost part of your being. That right, to be who you are, is given by God, and affirmed by the Constitution. So, if you choose to live a secular lifestyle, apart from God, or His influence, you are free to do so. If you choose to follow a lifestyle of homosexuality, you are free to do so. However, you are not free to require that others participate in that lifestyle with you, nor can you require that others accept that lifestyle. To do that, you'd have to regulate the human heart, and that is something that no government can do.

That being said, you will reap the consequences (good or bad) of the decisions you make in this life when you die and face the Lord in judgment. Choose wisely.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Why Christians Engage the Political Process

1 Corinthians 1:27 says "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;" To put it more plainly, God has chosen the common, everyday man to proclaim His message to the world. With that in mind, it's easy to see why the bearded brothers and patriarch of A&E's Duck Dynasty have been able to influence American culture far and above any other cable reality series.

I normally don't weigh in on Christian celebrities, or major news events surrounding individuals... mainly because my experience is that those placed on pedestals often let us down. Who can forget how Miss California was blasted by Perez Hilton in the Miss America (or was it Miss USA) pageant for not affirming gay marriage. Immediately, we had high-profile Christian leaders rally to her defense, claiming persecution of Christian values. That defense was silenced a few weeks later, when compromising photos of Miss California surfaced, and it became evident she wasn't living up to the values she professed publicly.

Which is why, despite his testimony, and the hours I have spent watching his TV show, I have been slow to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Phil Robertson. Still, there are two things about Robertson that I cannot get away from. (1) His testimony of how God took him from being a wretched sinner, to being a Christian who actually uses his life as a platform to promote the Gospel, and (2) his deep, abiding respect for the American way of life, particularly our founding fathers' commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How amazing is it that God is allowing these bearded rednecks, who are a laughing stalk among the cultural elite, to re-insert Christianity and Biblical principles into mainstream American life.

While the producers of the Duck Dynasty TV show limit Robertson's ability to proclaim the Gospel over the air, he is repeatedly able to discuss the three unalienable rights granted to us by our Creator... the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, rights to which the founders of our nation committed this country when they drafted the organizational documents and mission statement of our government. They were the guiding values of the American revolution, and the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.

The problem in America today is that the society, and government officials, have either forgotten that our country is built on preserving those three basic rights, or forgotten what they mean altogether. These are rights that every Christian should stand up and defend, not only because they were granted by the Creator, but because without the protection of these basic rights, we are not free to "lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." (1 Timothy 2:2) Basically, without the protection of our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we are not free to worship God in Spirit and truth, and we are not free to seek His will for our lives. For that reason, Christians should be involved in the political process, because every piece of legislation and so-called national defense initiative are eroding those rights.

All that said, let's look at these three unalienable rights, and what they truly mean to us. The first right is basic... the right to life. God created us to live. Life is such a basic right that many take it for granted. However, the Bill of Rights, and due process under the law are designed to protect this most basic right. Both the Bill of Rights and laws governing due legal process prevent a person's life being taken from them without a proper trial, without being proven guilty of a crime, and laws are in place to prevent someone else from taking your life away from you.

Yet today, the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government is slow to speak against using deadly force against Americans who are suspected of being engaged in domestic terroristic activity. While this may seem to some to be a common-sense way to combat terrorism, keep in mind that if one of your fellow Americans can be labeled a national security threat, and terminated without due process, you can be as well.

Furthermore, U.S. law allows for unborn children to be denied the basic right to life, based on the decisions, values or whims of the mother, or medical advice of a physician. Some abortions are performed because the unborn child has Downs Syndrome, or a serious disability. To counter the idea that unborn children should be aborted, and denied their right to life because of a disability, I will quote abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, who suffers from Cerebral Palsy as a result of a botched abortion. Jessen's mother tried to abort her, but she survived, and was later adopted.  Jessen told a crowd of supporters in Brownwood, Texas, recently, that it is arrogant for a healthy person to determine whether a disabled person can enjoy a good quality of life.

The second unalienable right given by our Creator, and recognized by our country's founding documents, is the right to liberty... the right to make your own decisions. While Christians are often accused as being enemies of liberty for opposing homosexuality, same-sex marriage, drug legalization, etc, it is not Christians who are trying to dictate what you feed your children for lunch, or what values are taught to your children through the public school system. Today's government seeks to monitor and control child nutrition, caloric intake, how much water flows through your toilet when you flush, what kind of light bulb you can buy, what options are in your health insurance package, what kind of car you drive, and even mandate with whom you are allowed to do business.

There have been court cases where business people (like a wedding photographer in New Mexico) were compelled by legal penalty to partake in activities that violated their very conscience. In a land of liberty, the individual should have the ability to decide for whom they would like to perform services, and for whom they would not. In a land of liberty, no one should be compelled to engage in religion, neither should one be compelled to engage in what they view as a sinful event. So, liberty is being attacked.

And finally, there is the pursuit of happiness. To properly understand what it means to pursue happiness, you really have to read Thomas Jefferson's writings. Jefferson's view of the pursuit of happiness was to determine what your talents were, and then to live life pursuing those interests, building your talent, and becoming all you could be. It was about self-actualization, rising through the income brackets, accomplishing great things, and breaking barriers. It was about the son of a blacksmith becoming a senator, or the son of a senator becoming a teacher. The pursuit of happiness is about finding your passion, and following it, and maximizing your achievement.

However, today's culture and government penalizes such behavior, and encourages settling for serfdom in low income positions, and mediocrity in ambitions.

Seeing the slow erosion of these freedoms, and the awareness and value placed on these freedoms, Christians should be involved in the political process. The goal should be to defend, protect, and restore those basic rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For, if we remain silent, one day those rights will be gone, and so will our ability to live peaceably, and holy, and worship in Spirit and truth.