Dr. Dan Nelson |
Today, we as Christians find ourselves in a defensive posture with regard to marriage. The redefinition of marriage has brought religious freedom under attack. We cannot sit idly by, or we will lose many more liberties. There are bills in both the House and the Senate that can help protect our religious freedom. The First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) has been introduced by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in the Senate (S. 1598) and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) in the House (H.R. 2802).
The bill “prohibits the federal government from taking discriminatory action against a person on the basis that such person believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that…marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman….” It is disconcerting that we need such a bill to explain the first amendment, but it is necessary since terms have been redefined.
How can you help? Express your support of FADA to your legislator and senators. For most of you, Rep. Trey Gowdy or Rep. Jeff Duncan represents you. They along with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Tim Scott have co-sponsored these bills. It would be easy to think that you do not need to contact them because they are supporting what you want. However, just the opposite is true. I strongly encourage you to send each of them an email thanking them for co-sponsoring the bill and declaring that you fully support them. You can be sure that they will hear from the special interest groups that oppose FADA. They need to know that there are many that support them and are praying for them in this battle. You can email them by going to www.congress.gov.
Please consider talking with family members and friends who live in other states or districts and who have legislators who are not so sympathetic. One easy way is to simply forward them this article. The passage of this bill is critical to the future of our Christian schools and churches.
It is true that politics follow culture. The gospel is essential to changing the culture of our day. We have the opportunity to influence culture by living out the gospel in our homes, in our school, and in our churches. We influence culture as we preach and teach the gospel in our communities. While we seek for political change in the halls of Congress, let us, more importantly, seek to influence politics by changing culture with the gospel of Christ.