Here is a good column by Melissa Rogers, a visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School, that critiques the recent "Justice Sunday" rally:
Religious Freedom For All Here are a couple of highlights:
"If the goal of this effort is to cause religious people to feel fear, alienation and anger, it succeeds brilliantly. If the goal is to tell them the truth, it’s a miserable failure."
"During a series of Justice Sunday events, however, the Family Research Council and its partners have repeatedly distorted church-state law and the motives of certain judges."
"Understandably, many non-Christians are alarmed by this agenda. As a Baptist Christian, I am alarmed as well. All people should be free from governmental pressure on matters of faith. We should exercise the great freedom we have to practice our faith, but we should not ask the government to advance religion for us. Indeed, when the government promotes faith, it inevitably uses religion for its own ends, which warps religion and weakens its spiritual force. As Baptist preacher John Leland said in 1804: 'Experience, the best teacher, has informed us that the fondness of magistrates to foster Christianity has done it more harm than all the persecutions ever did.'”
Amen!
Thanks to Bruce Prescott at the Mainstream Baptist blog for pointing this out.
Religious Freedom For All Here are a couple of highlights:
"If the goal of this effort is to cause religious people to feel fear, alienation and anger, it succeeds brilliantly. If the goal is to tell them the truth, it’s a miserable failure."
"During a series of Justice Sunday events, however, the Family Research Council and its partners have repeatedly distorted church-state law and the motives of certain judges."
"Understandably, many non-Christians are alarmed by this agenda. As a Baptist Christian, I am alarmed as well. All people should be free from governmental pressure on matters of faith. We should exercise the great freedom we have to practice our faith, but we should not ask the government to advance religion for us. Indeed, when the government promotes faith, it inevitably uses religion for its own ends, which warps religion and weakens its spiritual force. As Baptist preacher John Leland said in 1804: 'Experience, the best teacher, has informed us that the fondness of magistrates to foster Christianity has done it more harm than all the persecutions ever did.'”
Amen!
Thanks to Bruce Prescott at the Mainstream Baptist blog for pointing this out.
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