Samson's Jawbone

Most of us know the name Rosa Parks. We admire her for the stand she took against racism, but most of us forget how her case became known. After she was arrested for refusing to move to the rear of the bus she called, her pastor. The young Rev. Martin Luther King came to the jail and took up her cause. The rest is history. Any student of history knows that the great causes in America even our revolution itself gained public acceptance in part because local church pastors were prominent in  the fight. The evangelist George Whitefield was a defender of our liberty. The abolitionist movement had strong connections to William Wilberforce and the preachers of the second Great Awakening gave rise to abolitionism and the end of slavery in the United States.  When I see the debate over gay marriage and individual religious liberty it gives rise to on quesiton for me. Where are the nations clerical leaders? The silence of our nations evangelical leaders  over the gay marriage issue is deaf

Samson's Jawbone: Liberty Cannot Prevail Without Discrimination. : If a terrorist committed to the annihilation of Israel walked into a deli, which unbeknown to him was owned by a Rabbi, and demanded that he...

If a terrorist committed to the annihilation of Israel walked into a deli, which unbeknown to him was owned by a Rabbi, and demanded that he cater his feast at the local mosque should the Rabbi be allowed to decline? If a former Nazi concentration camp guard died and his family went to a Jewish funeral director to prepare his body, insisting the funeral service be adorned with a Nazi flags, can the  the funeral director refuse because the service is an affront to his heritage? Religious freedom, as defined in the recent debate over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act is under assault; its supporters are accused of  bigotry and discrimination. The ability to engage in relationships and activities consistent with our values is essential to liberty. The First Amendment means more than the right to go to church without interference. Despotic regimes like China, Cuba, Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union afford their people what they call freedom of worship , which means t