Issues
The Christian Action Commission covers a host of issues. To the left you'll see several categories with related subtopics. Select the issue(s) you're interested in. Here you'll be able to read and even tell a friend about it.
Religious Liberty
Q&A: Hate crimes bill & religious liberty
By By Michael Foust
July 17, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The hate crimes bill currently making its way through Congress has led to charges by Christian conservatives that it could impact religious freedoms.
The bill would expand current hate crimes laws to include protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity—terms that encompass homosexuality and transgenderism.
On Friday Baptist Press spoke with Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law, and asked him about the bill, which he opposes. Following is the transcript:
BAPTIST PRESS: “Religious conservatives often charge that passage of a hate crimes law that includes sexual orientation would impact religious freedom. Supporters say it targets only criminal acts. How would it impact religious freedom?”
STAVER: “For starters, sexual orientation and gender identity gets elevated to the same level as race. And whenever you start putting sexual …
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The trouble with hate crimes legislation
By Barrett Duke
The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (H.R. 1913) is an irresponsible piece of legislation. Its most notable flaws are its determination to prosecute people for their beliefs about homosexuality and its creation of a special protected class for homosexuals. How do you prosecute someone for prejudice? You determine what that person believes about a particular issue and then you surmise that his actions were a result of that belief. Most Christians, as well as many other religious groups, believe that homosexuality and homosexual behavior are contrary to God’s design for humanity. Consequently, this bill puts Christians and many other religious groups in the government’s crosshairs.
Under this law, one’s religious belief about homosexuality can be sufficient reason to prosecute him for a hate crime if he engages in an act of violence against a homosexual. While we should never condone acts of violence against people merely …
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The Christian Doctrine of Religious Liberty
By By Barrett Duke
Sep 8, 2005
Presented at First Freedom Conference on Religious Liberty Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Fort Worth, Texas September 8, 2005
Recently, the United States’ Bureau of Immigration Appeals (BIA) argued that a Chinese man who had been arrested and beaten in China for operating an unregistered house church could not remain in the United States but would have to return to China. The BIA denied his request to remain because it believed that the treatment the man received from the Chinese authorities was related to his illegal activity of operating an unregistered place of worship not his religious beliefs.
Essentially, the BIA made a distinction between religious belief and religious practice. For them, persecution for religious belief merits protection, but persecution for religious practice born out of that belief is not necessarily protected behavior. The BIA made this decision in …
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The Bible Speaks on Christian Citizenship
By By Staff
Jan 24, 2006
Politics is the business of deciding who gets what, when, and where. Christians must not leave such important business to unbelievers. In these times, no one can be an obedient Christian who is not also a good citizen. The Christian faith demands responsible citizenship.
Democracy, by its very nature, requires citizen participation in the processes of government at every level—local, state, and national. The Bible, moreover, explicitly calls for Christian citizenship.
The Nature of Government
Bible principles concerning the nature of government are as valid today as when they were first given.
• Civil government is of divine appointment. Civil government is a part of God’s purpose for this kind of world. God’s people have lived under many different forms of government. While no one form of government is divinely chosen, government itself is ordained of …
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Religious Expression on Public Property
By By Richard Land
A book was published in April 2007 which reflects almost a half century of reflection and study on my part concerning an issue that matters deeply to me as an American Christian deeply committed to the Baptist faith tradition. The issue is religious freedom, and the book is The Divided States of America? What Liberals AND Conservatives Are Missing in the God-and-Country Shouting Match!
One issue discussed in the book that has generated considerable interest and response is my attempt to identify and analyze three major perspectives, or models, regarding religious expression in the public square in American society.
First, there are those Americans, particularly those on the left, who have adopted a position of avoidance. They assert that things pertaining to religion have no place in the public square. They oppose manger scenes or other religious displays on government property, such as courthouse lawns, and …
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The Christian and the Government: A Delicate Balance
By By Richard Land
Americans celebrated the 231st birthday of their nation last week with picnics, parades and pyrotechnics. While it may not have been a topic of conversation within most gatherings on July 4, it is worth pondering what a government ordained by God looks like.
For the Apostle Paul writing to the Romans, it was the Roman Empire—not what you would call an enlightened regime. You and I wouldn’t like it even if we had been Roman citizens. Yet Paul referred to these pagan rulers as governing authorities established by God, and he instructed persecuted Christians to submit to them “for conscience sake”:
Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves …
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Tackling the Relationship Between the Church and the State
By By Steven Griffin
Aug 1, 2007
A Summary of The Divided States of America? by Richard Land
Most conservatives think we have taken God out of this country and we need to put Him back in, asserting that God is on our side and taking patriotism to an idolatrous level. Meanwhile, most liberals think separation of church and state requires that God should not have anything to do with American politics and public life. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, writes why both views are wrong in his book, The Divided States of America?, and why these views will lead to a “furtherance of the shouting matches that rage between the extreme worldviews on each side, resulting in lots of heat but very little light.”
Dr. Land points out that while America was not founded as a “Christian nation,” it …
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Christian Citizenship: Utilizing the Wall of Separation
By Lee Yancey
(From Salt & Light: May/June 2002, Vol. 15, No.3)
In George W. Truett’s address to the Baptist churches of Washington, D.C. on May 16, 1920, he spoke of Jesus’ words: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Truett said it was:
one of the most revolutionary and history-making utterances that ever fell from those divine lips. That utterance, once and for all marked the divorcement of church and state. It marked a new era for the creeds and deeds of men. It was the sunrise gun of a new day the echoes of which are to go on and on until in every land, whether great or small the doctrine shall have absolute supremacy everywhere of a free church in a free state. In behalf of our Baptist people I am compelled to say that forgetfulness …
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