Hobby Lobby and Religious Liberty
July 3, 2014
This past Monday, The United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, handed down a ruling which said corporations are not required to violate their religious beliefs by being forced to purchase abortion causing drugs for their employees. This may seem, at first, to only be of concern to those either on the potential giving or receiving end of such insurance coverage, but it has much greater and wider implications which are relevant to the whole notion of religious liberty.
If government can overrule the conscious of individuals and force them to do things (i.e. purchase something) that violates their individual conscience on religious grounds then there is nothing to stop them from doing it on a regular basis. Religious liberty has been a hallmark of this nation from its earliest days and figured heavily into the framing of the founding documents of the nation. Even further back than that, the English Pilgrims who came to the new world came seeking, primarily religious liberty.
Christians certainly are expected to obey the rules and laws we live under without trying to wiggle our way out of our primary duties as citizens. However, there do come points where the overreach of the government presents a crisis in the conscience of the individual. The Hobby Lobby case is one such instance. The new requirements under the Obamacare health law mandated cooperations provide birth control, including abortion inducing drugs to their employees. The Green family who are operators of the craft store chain based in Oklahoma City are Southern Baptists with deeply held convictions about the sanctity of human life and were unwilling to comply by paying for drugs that would terminate pregnancy. The money involved was insignificant, but solely at issue was the idea of their being forced to become complicit in the practice of what they viewed as grievously sinful.
Now that the high court has ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, many feel it is now time to rest, but Dr. Russell Moore, President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention writes “I pray for churches that can raise up a new generation to prize freedom of conscience and religious liberty for all . . . Who could have imagined just a few years ago that we would even have to take such a thing to the United States Supreme Court? We must teach our children what it means to be free people, and what it means to follow Christ whatever the cost.” (“Why Hobby Lobby Matters” available at www.russellmoore.com)
As we look toward the future, it is easy to predict that following Christ will become more and more difficult and potentially cost much, much more than it ever has in America. Christ and Christians will be viewed increasingly as strange and sorely out of touch with the real world. The highest god sinful mankind knows is himself and anything which threatens that god will be shouted down and even punished when possible.
The half-hearted efforts of many who call themselves Christians will not suffice as the wave of secularization continues destroying, or attempting to destroy, everything in its path. If churches, and individual believers are going to be strong through the onslaught of increasingly greater persecution then they must be prepared. We are in uncharted waters in America, and it will almost certainly grow worse.
How then shall we live? Peter wrote in his first letter “Live as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.” (1 Pet. 2:16) Further, we need to proclaim the Gospel with boldness and a sense of urgency in these difficult days.
In Christ,
Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor
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