Religious freedom and freedom of speech in America are both in their death throes. While the writhing may go on for a while, absent a miraculous healing of the American spirit, their ultimate deaths are assured – and likely to occur sooner than we ever imagined.
Thanks to the progressive agenda, in general, these two real “fundamental” rights have been ill for quite some time. But it took the trifecta of radical environmentalism, the Affordable Care Act, and the same-sex marriage movement to push them to the brink. Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling saving the ACA and – to a far greater extent – Friday’s ruling creating a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, sounded the death knell.
Despite being so strong that nothing can stand in its way, the “right side of history,” apparently, is, at the same time, so fragile that any dissent could upend the whole enterprise. Dissenters – Christians, in particular – must, therefore, be silenced and marginalized. Progressives no doubt are overjoyed that the Supreme Court has handed them the tools to make that happen.
As Os Guinness writes in A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future, “[f]reedom never lasts forever, because its very vitality is built on a combination of elements that are dynamic, difficult to hold together and easy to corrupt.” In a fallen world, it could be no other way. When religious freedom and freedom of speech die, America’s freedom will be dead, as well.
CCO Public Domain pixabay.comAt the Northampton Seminar on the Patheos website, my friend Gerry McDermott offers reasons to take heart. While “[t]hese are dark days for orthodox believers and conservatives,” Gerry writes, “. . . these are also days when we should be reminded of bright hopes.” Quoting Luke 6:22-23, Gerry reminds us that Jesus said we should “leap for joy” when men hate and revile us on His account. Such treatment puts us right up there with the prophets.
I know Gerry is right, and I sure can’t argue with the words of our Lord, but I’m not quite there yet. As a new neighbor helpfully pointed out to me recently, I’m no spring chicken. Still, I had hoped not to live to see the day freedom died in America. I’ll pray that I can leap for joy very soon. For now, I’m just trying to stay upright and stake out a small stand on the wrong side of history.
–updated 6:31 pm EDT
Conserving the Culture 