Sometimes we take it for granted.
The ability to raise our children. Attending church. Sharing our faith.
But they are important issues, Cissie Graham Lynch discussed on her latest Fearless podcast with Kristen Waggoner, who serves as general counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
“Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen our culture continuously grow in hostility towards Christians and our religious freedom here in the United States,” Lynch said. “We’ve been given this precious freedom to live out our faith freely, not just in the four walls of our home or our church, but in the public square and in our businesses and every aspect of life.”
>> Listen to the full podcast episode.
Religious freedom may not sound personal to you, but it is. Right now, legal cases are deciding how your children are taught in school or whether businesses are allowed to deny certain customers.
For Waggoner, the best part of what she does at ADF is helping Christians who call in and say, “I don’t know what to do here. I’m feeling like I don’t have the right to live out my faith. Can you help me?”
As the world’s largest legal organization that’s committed to protecting religious freedom, freedom of speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life and marriage, ADF has won 13 cases in the last decade at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“There are very few countries that have this same type of rights that we do,” Waggoner said. “In those other countries, you don’t have the freedom of speech. You don’t have … free press. You don’t have economic freedom. And frankly, the vulnerable populations are treated poorly—women and children and the disabled. We can again look around the world to see what happens when we don’t steward the freedoms that we have.”
Which makes even more important for believers to step up.
“It doesn’t matter what corner of the world you’re in, your little home surviving the day. Cancel culture, these legal issues, they will find you eventually because they’re coming after Christians,” Lynch said.
So what can we do?
“Loving our God and loving our neighbor means stewarding the freedoms that God has given us,” Waggoner explained. “He’s put us here for such a time as this. I know that sounds so, you know, trivial or redundant … but it’s true. We’re made for this time and this season. And God knew that we would be here.
I would just encourage people … you were placed in your neighborhood, … in your job to influence them. And part of that influence needs to be in protecting these freedoms and … and talking about what matters at our dinner tables, in the PTA rooms and everywhere else.”
