Christianity

Russell Moore talks about religious liberty on Fox News

Russell Moore appeared on Fox News yesterday to talk about Obamacare’s contraception mandate and the threat that it poses to religious liberty. The money quote is at the end. From the transcript at FoxNews.com:

You can see this happening all over the country not only related to Obamacare. This is just one fiery rafter in a burning house. Religious liberty is under assault all over the place in this country in ways that I think are probably more pronounced than we have seen since the founding era… People who are doing good things in their communities motivated by religious convictions are simply being driven out of the public square because they won’t sing out of the hymn book of the church of the sexual revolution. I just don’t think we can live this way as Americans.

He’s spot-on about this. The battle is being waged on multiple fronts, and we are going to have to be vigilant on all sides of this challenge. If ever Southern Baptists (and other evangelicals!) have needed an active and engaged ERLC, it’s right now. And I am grateful that is precisely what we have. Watch the rest above.

9 Comments

  • Paula Bolyard (@pbolyard)

    As bad as things are in this country with issues like this (and a host of others), I’m so encouraged by men like Moore, and Dr. Mohler — and you as well, Denny. In a sense it seems like the church is coming out of an American Dark Ages. Some of the best minds in the country are front and center in the cultural debates and we are seeing a thirst for biblical truth that I’ve not seen in my lifetime. We see some parallels on the political scene as well, as Americans are becoming educated about the Constitution and our history and are not satisfied to trust everything the politicians say. I can’t help but think that, just as during the Reformation, there is a spillover effect from revitalized, biblical churches.

  • Chris Ryan

    I think we should talk very simply abt what’s at stake here. Companies, Hobby Lobby among others, wants to prohibit its female employees from using their health plans to purchase contraception. Why should a company have any say at all in whether or not their employees use contraception?

    And to those who say, well Hobby Lobby is providing the health insurance, I’d say, ‘Why does that matter?’ Hobby Lobby also provides them their salary. Could they tell their employees, they can’t use their paycheck to buy condoms, or the pill?

    This isn’t abt religious liberty. This is abt some executive thinking he can tell his employees what to do in the privacy of their own home. That’s arrogance. What Hobby Lobby & others want to do is to take away the religious liberty of others. The only way we lose religious liberty is if Hobby Lobby & their lawyers win.

    • Paula Bolyard (@pbolyard)

      Hobby Lobby has every right to say “We will not subsidize our employees killing their unborn babies.” That’s “very simply” what’s at stake here. Hobby Lobby employees are still free to kill their babies on their own dime.

      • Chris Ryan

        Obamacare only requires contraception coverage, it doesn’t require abortion coverage. And the Hyde Amendment explicitly prohibits the gov’t from subsidizing abortion.

        Beyond that, its not a subsidy, its compensation. You earn your health insurance same as you earn your paycheck. Its literally your dime 🙂 A company can’t tell its employees how to use their compensation, any more than my boss could tell me that I couldn’t tithe to my church using my paycheck. Imagine if a Jewish owned company told its employees that they couldn’t donate money to Christian churches. This is precisely the same thing.

  • Roy Fuller

    To be clear: the principle I hear being articulated by those who support Hobby Lobby is this: any employer (of a non-religious business, religious organizations are exempt), has the right to decide which government mandates they will or will not follow, as determined by the owners personal religious convictions. Chris Ryan is exactly right. If Hobby Lobby wins, a terrible precedent will be established. So, if I believe gluttony to be a sin, I should not be forced to pay for health care measures which might be needed for my obese employees? Or because I believe that addiction is a sin, I will not pay for treatment? How may other “faith-based exemptions” might be thought of by those seeking relief from mandates? Step away from the abortion issue and ask yourself that question. Hobby Lobby is a secular business, owned by people who are religious. It is not a church, religious-owned and operated hospital, etc.

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