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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Religious Liberty Part 2

Well, good morning everyone and welcome to Early Church.

Good to see you and good to have those joining us online.

And we're gonna talk today about religious freedoms And we're going to ask that the Lord bless us as we look at his word and as we look at some current events today.

So let's just bow our heads and ask the Lord to bless us this morning.

Father in heaven, thank you this morning that we can come in worship of you, worshiping on the Sabbath day, and as you've said, to not forsake the assembling of ourselves, it is a matter of some.

We come in that spirit asking you to join us and to be in assembly.

You said where 2 or 3 are gathered in your name, you're in the midst.

So we ask that you would come into the midst and we thank you we come in Christ's name, amen.

Madison wrote a letter, James Madison to Thomas Jefferson on 1795 or 98 that said, perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged against provisions, against danger real or pretended from abroad.

So he said the biggest challenge to religious freedom would be because of dangers real or pretended from abroad.

In America, there has been a real danger that has come from abroad to this land in terms of a pandemic.

And over the last several months, there have been increasingly, what's that?

There's been increasingly, what we say pronounced reflections or responses to that pandemic, which is seen as a real danger, public health danger, and I would stipulate that yes, it is a real public health danger.

I have people I know that were my have been my friends that have died as a result of the pandemic.

I have people right now that are in a crisis situation not able to breathe and potentially not going to make it as a result of the pandemic.

So be that as it may, it still is a universal truth that loss of liberty at home is going to be charged according to Madison looking at the Constitution looking at freedom of religion he said look the big danger is a real or pretended danger from abroad And this could bring problems.

In another book written after 9-11 called Disasters in the Millennium, the author spoke about 3 outcomes of severe crisis.

Number 1, disaster creates conditions peculiar fitted to the rapid alteration of belief systems.

And disaster number 2 produces questioning and the anxiety and suggestibility that are required for a change or produces the questioning the anxiety and the suggestibility that are required for change.

Only in its wake are people moved to abandon old values of the past.

So, dangers, real or pretend, coupled with the alteration of belief systems because people are thrown off, and the number 3 belief systems which under non-disaster conditions might be dismissed in a disaster are seen as something we should sympathize with, we should go along with.

Well, what does that mean in terms of bringing us up to speed in terms of the COVID-19 and religious liberty?

Many state governments have imposed restrictions and those restrictions lack concern for the First Amendment freedoms.

Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, this past Thursday in a speech that he gave to the Federalist Society.

Although laws that allow government's latitude in response to emergencies can sometimes be appropriate, such laws should not overrule, said Alito, the First Amendment's religious liberty protections.

And I quote, the pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty.

We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive, and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020, " said the Justice.

Governors show that they don't respect First Amendment freedoms when they end COVID-19 restrictions for other businesses before churches or apply them separately, he said.

In the state of Nevada, churches were limited to 50 attendees while allowing bars, casinos, restaurants, indoor amusement parks to remain open.

And although a majority of the Supreme Court ruled in July that Nevada's governor could do so, Justice Alito said the US Constitution obviously does not support that ruling.

In a time of supposed, a real or pretended danger, and this is a real danger, there would be a alteration of belief systems which would allow the Constitution to somewhat be flouted and that's exactly what's happening according to Justice Alito.

Deciding whether to allow this desperate treatment should not really be a tough call, he said.

You will see in the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious liberty, and you will not find a craps clause or a blackjack clause or a slot machine clause.

The reason he says that is because these casinos are open and they have hundreds of people in them and they have no, they might have some kind of stipulation, but it certainly is not being treated the same as the church.

In this case and others like it, public officials have treated freedom of religion as a second class right, Alito said.

In other cases, the government wants nuns to buy contraceptives, it's forcing Christian pharmacists to provide abortion drugs, and taking Christian bakers to court that refuse to make cakes to celebrate same-sex marriage.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, government attacks on religious freedom have become more and more common, the justice added.

In contrast to these impositions of religious freedom, The government has removed pandemic restrictions to allow access for women to get abortion-inducing drugs.

And a federal judge said that COVID-19 fears shouldn't prevent women from getting abortions.

Alito suggested and said, abortion seems more important to the government than the right to go to church.

These changes have happened rapidly, he noted.

In the 1990s, President Clinton signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that had enormous bipartisan support.

30 years later, however, an Equality Act was passed that would force Christians to violate their beliefs on sex and gender.

Again, quoting Alito, for many today, religious liberty is not a cherished freedom.

It's often just an excuse for bigotry and it can't be tolerated, even when there is no evidence that anyone has been harmed, " said the justice.

And this unlevel application of concern for health is something that is seen in several states in massive ways.

No matter what tier you look at, whether it's the purple tier or the red tier or the yellow tier, in every single tier, the church is treated differently and not equally with others underneath the guidance.

And so it is a decided and direct message that is sent according to Justice Alito.

The United States has moved away from its constitutional roots.

Elected representatives don't write laws in accordance with the Constitution, Alito said.

Instead, experts and governors make decrees that ignore the laws and ignore the Constitution.

Continuing he said in his speech, which has gained a lot of press, the COVID crisis has served as a sort of constitutional stress test.

In doing so, it has highlighted disturbing trends that were already present before the virus struck." So the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly to religion are being treated as second-class rights, Alito continued.

The courts must work to protect the constitutional rights of Americans.

The laws will not matter, however, if Americans themselves don't want freedom.

You don't want freedom, don't say anything, don't do anything, try and just act like nothing's happening.

If you want freedom, speak up, speak out.

And that brings me to this whole idea at the end of Alito's speech.

In the end, there's not only so much a judiciary can do to preserve our Constitution, and the liberty of this was adopted to protect.

As learned hand, that's the name of a very famous and eloquent judge, famously wrote, and I believe this was in 1949, liberty lies in the hearts of men and women, and when it dies there, no constitution, No law, no court can do much to help it survive.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women.

Hopefully, especially Christian men and women.

Liberty and freedom should lie in the hearts of Christian men and women.

When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can do much to help it.

Ellen White in speaking about religious liberty said, we're not doing God's will if we sit in quietude doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience.

It's actually 1 of the first 4 in that First Amendment, coupled with religion, First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

There's a redress of grievances that's before the Supreme Court from the state of New York, and it's revisiting a, the ruling that was handed down that Alita was speaking about that was handed down in Nevada and California.

Some would say, well, you know, it's the right to assemble just to petition the government for redress of grievances.

The right of the people peaceably to assemble, comma, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The right to assemble, is it only to petition the government?

Well, actually the back story of assembly in the Constitution was linked to the arrest and trial of William Penn.

For participating in a collective religious worship service that had nothing to do with petitioning the government.

So the right to assembly was specifically tied in the constitution, the history leading up to that eloquent phrase, the right of people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances, was directly tied to William Penn attending a religious worship service that at that point somehow the government didn't like.

The right to assemble is a crucial legal and cultural protection, wrote 1, for dissenting and unorthodox groups, including religious organizations.

Assemble is the only right in the First Amendment that requires more than a lone individual for its exercise.

You can speak by yourself, but You can't assemble by yourself.

Unless they have a psychiatric illness, I suppose, and think someone's there with them.

Moreover, while some assemblies occur spontaneously, most do not.

The right to assemble includes the preparation to assemble as well.

The right to tell people you want to meet and the right to meet peaceably are both part of that First Amendment of the Constitution.

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Religious Liberty Part 2

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