Posted on 06/10/2016 6:58:39 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
Baptists and other Christians should defend religious freedom for non-Christians, including Muslims, because it is morally right, as well as helpful to their own cause, says Southern Baptist religious liberty leader Russell Moore.
Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), advocated for religious freedom for people of all faiths in a blog post Wednesday (June 8), which came two days after a Baptist state editor questioned providing such liberty for Muslims.
Religious freedom is not a government benefit “but a natural and inalienable right granted by God,” Moore wrote. “At issue is whether or not the civil state has the power to zone mosques or Islamic cemeteries or synagogues or houses of worship of whatever kind out of existence because of what those groups believe.
“When someone makes such a claim, that person is not standing up for Jesus and his Gospel, but standing against them,” he said. “To empower the state to command or to forbid worship is not fidelity to the Bible.”
(Excerpt) Read more at bcnn1wp.wordpress.com ...
Who gets to determine which religions are "real religions"?
I’m pretty sure it is more important to ask this of Muslims...and analyze their reaction. We should be demanding this as a requirement in the West, instead we spend time pointing out our “intolerance”. Sigh.
Yeah? So who is doing that??
In the case that is the actual subject behind the article in question, a township in New Jersey.
In May, the ERLC defended religious freedom for all in a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a Muslim community in New Jersey that has been prevented by the local government from building a mosque. The ERLC and the International Mission Board joined 16 other organizations in a diverse coalition urging a judge to find the government had violated a 2000 federal law protecting religious freedom in the area of land use.
I do, of course, or any sensible person.
Some real religions:
Buddhism,
Christianity,
Confucianism,
Hinduism,
Jainism,
Judaism,
Shinto,
Sikhism,
Taoism, and
Zoroastrianism.
Some fake religions:
Jedi,
Pastafarianism,
Festivusism, and
Sith
Any sensible person can tell which list Islam belongs on.
It’s not a religion, dumb@ss!
In its article on religious liberty, the SBC’s confession -- the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 -- says, “The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. ... A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”
“And when the government decides that Christians “give aid and comfort to our enemies” or like the democrat party has already decided that Christians ARE the enemy?”
That’s inevitable. Christians are destined to be persecuted until Christ returns, so I don’t see much point in worrying ourselves over it.
To say we should defend Muslims’ right not to be offended while our right to decline services that we find blasphemous and speak OUR faith in public is a Shariah law level-double standard.
all we really want is to STOP importing the 3rd world.
Christians should defend religious freedom for other RELIGIONS. Islam is a socio-political system masquerading as a religion, and its behavior renders it indefensible.
Exactly.
There really are no words.
How is it morally right to defend a belief system that’s 180 degrees opposite yours. Either yours is right or theirs - both can’t be right.
It isn't defending their belief system. It is defending their LIBERTY to have a belief system. This isn't about which religion you choose to follow. It is about whether or not you accept the Constitutional principle that the state cannot pick and choose which religions are permissible and which are not.
I think the freedom to EXERCISE any religion is untenable.
How can you have a religion coexist peacefully with other religions when part of its EXERCISE is to physically exterminate the other religions?
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