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Cedarville Magazine
Speaking up as the risks increase
Excerpted from remarks made by Jennifer Marshall at the Religious Freedom Summit on October 9, 2014
In the last few years, we have seen court decisions
that have struck down the federal definition of
marriage and state laws defining marriage as the
union of a man and a woman. The challenge has
very quickly escalated from simply debating the
definition of marriage. Now we’re having to defend
even the right to speak and to act consistent with
the truth about marriage being the union of a man
and a woman.
Recent Challenges
Cynthia and Robert Gifford run Liberty
Ridge Farm in upstate New York where they host
weddings and other events. In 2012, a lesbian
couple approached the Giffords about holding their
wedding on the farm, but the Giffords declined on
the basis of their religious belief.The [lesbian] couple
took the matter to the NewYork Division of Human
Rights, and in July, an administrative law judge
fined the Giffords $13,000 for discrimination. The
Giffords were told to institute anti-discrimination
re-education training for their staff. Instead, the
Giffords have decided to stop hosting weddings,
and they are appealing the decision.
This spring, the President announced that he
would issue an executive order regarding lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employment
in organizations that contract with the federal
government. Religious groups have contracted with
the government to provide aid and development
relief abroad. Fourteen Christian leaders, including
Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, sent a letter to
the President asking that religious groups be able
to continue hiring according to their mission and
standards of conduct. The executive order issued
this summer did not heed these appeals.
The President of Gordon College, an evangelical
campus in Massachusetts, signed the letter. The
public schools in the town of Lynn, Massachusetts,
announced they were severing ties with the college,
which has provided after-school tutoring and other
services. Backlash against participating in civil
discourse should make us very alarmed.
In 2012, Angela McCaskill, Associate Provost for Diversity and
Inclusion at Gallaudet University for the Deaf inWashington, D.C.,
was put on administrative leave. McCaskill had signed a petition
to put a referendum on the Maryland ballot so citizens could vote
on a same-sex marriage law. She’s been reinstated, but this kind of
treatment is appalling.
So is the purge of Brendan Eich. He was the CEO of Mozilla,
and he was run out of that post April 2014. He had given a donation
six years earlier to the campaign in California to have a ballot issue
on whether marriage would be the union of a man and a woman.
Practical Responses
When basic freedoms such as voicing our perspectives in
the public square are attacked, we must speak up. Here are four
specific steps we as
Christians should take:
Continue to speak and
to act consistently with
biblical truth about
marriage and sexuality.
Secularists may argue
that when Christians
try to develop a moral
consensus around a
point of view, that
amounts to forcing
one’s religion on other
people. Secularists sometimes try to argue they are the only
ones who offer a genuinely neutral point of view. Neutrality is
a myth. Every public policy makes moral judgments about what
is good. We need to engage in these debates.
Defend the freedom to speak and to act consistent with our
convictions. It is a matter of interest in the common good to
stand up for freedom of speech against coercive policies and
cultural trends.
Expect and call on others to use reason — not coercion or
intimidation — to make their points.
Seek out the facts about public policy and legal accommodations
that can help resolve these tensions. That’s what laws like the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act are all about, balancing
competing interests in a pluralistic society.
Jennifer Marshall
is the Vice President for the Institute for Family,
Community, and Opportunity for The Heritage Foundation. She
holds a Master of Arts in religion from Reformed Theological
Seminary and a master’s degree in statecraft and world politics
from the Washington-based Institute of World Politics.
Backlash against participating
in civil discourse should make us
very alarmed.
