The Real Challenge to Religious Liberty in America
The things Christians decide are important enough to raise a stink over on religious liberty ground always astound me. Like the way we keep fighting for the right to say prayers at government meetings and such. As if such prayers have ANY meaning at all or losing them would be detrimental to Christianity. It’s a laughable proposition. Especially when the meetings that follow these prayers may wind up with a seriously anti-Christian law like this:
Daytona Beach is one of a handful of cities that enacted ordinances barring individuals from serving food in public. . . Daytona Beach is just the latest city to crack down on groups that feed the poor in city parks. Other recent examples range from Birmingham to St. Louis to Raleigh to Philadelphiato Orlando.
That comes from a story about a couple who was forced to stop feeding homeless people in a park each week and given thousands of dollars in fines for daring to do so. And their story isn’t particularly unique. These cases pop up regularly if you pay attention to such things. (Here’s another example out of Raleigh NC from last fall.) Some towns have gone so far in their wars on the poor that they have made covering yourself with blankets or newspapers illegal, washing your face in a public washroom illegal and sitting in one place too long illegal.
Now, how is it that we will fight for things we believe in, but which are never directly ordered by Jesus like praying before football games and town hall meetings or not helping women get birth control or whatever other thing we’ve decided is “an essential part of the Christian faith”. Meanwhile, we pass laws forbidding something Jesus specifically said to do, like feeding hungry people, and there’s nary a peep?
I would love to see Christians challenging these draconian ordinances on religious liberty grounds. I would love to see Christian police officers refusing to engage in enforcement actions which violate their religious liberties. I would love to see Christian citizens engaged in mass civil disobedience in protest of these laws.
Unfortunately, we seem far more invested in whether a multi-billionaire CEO has to indirectly fund his employees birth control than with feeding the poor like Jesus told us to. Is it any wonder the world is none to impressed with Christians these days?
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