Each week, The World and Everything in It features
a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher
discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of
the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of
this week’s conversation.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal this week vetoed a law that
would have provided legal protection for pastors, faith-based
organizations, and business owners who, in good conscience, refused to
service gay weddings. Deal claimed the bill would “give rise to
state-sanctioned discrimination.” Big money interests such as the
National Football League warned of severe economic sanctions should Georgia adopt the law. Deal said his veto was not a response to those threats.
The bill would have protected Georgians’ fundamental
freedom of worship, which is different from freedom of religion, John
Stonestreet explained.
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“The freedom of worship is the freedom that Cubans
have, that people in even North Korea have, which is the right to
believe what you want in your own mind and even practice it in your
houses of worship,” Stonestreet said. “These are basic, common sense
things.”
But the culture does not see freedom of religion or
freedom of worship as basic cornerstones of society, Stonestreet said,
and that’s a problem Christians need to tackle.
“We’re using a different dictionary than the culture.
The culture does not hear that as a public good. The culture, more and
more, is hearing [freedom of religion] as code language for ‘license to
discriminate,’” Stonestreet said, adding Christians need to defend the
concept of religious liberty across the backyard fence and around the
barbecue pit. “We can’t just leave this up to legislators and state
houses to win this battle. This is now an everyday cultural battle. And
it underscores the important role that every Christian plays in
defending and articulating a Christian worldview.”
Listen to “Culture Friday” on The World and Everything in It.
Nick Eicher
Nick lives in St. Louis, loves the Blues (as in the NHL), is executive
producer of WORLD Radio, and co-hosts WORLD's radio news magazine The World and Everything in It. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickEicher.
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