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It seems like every day we hear about another assault on our First Amendment right to free religious exercise. From the silencing of prayers at high school graduations and government meetings to nondiscrimination policies intended to thwart religious activity, the message of leftist elites is clear — you can believe what you want (for now) but keep it to yourself.

It makes us all the more thankful that we have advocates like the Alliance Defense Fund on our side. Yesterday, The Family Foundation joined ADF to co-host a luncheon briefing for attorneys and pastors on a religious liberty case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court next Monday. This case (Christian Legal Society v. Martinez) arose when the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco denied recognition to CLS, including equal meeting space and most means of communicating on campus. The reason? Although CLS welcomes everyone to all its events, CLS would not agree to eliminate its Statement of Faith requirement for officers and its voting members.

Hastings deemed CLS’ Statement of Faith and its interpretation that Christians should not engage in extramarital sexual activity to violate the religion and sexual orientation portions of its nondiscrimination policy. Hastings has since interpreted its rule as prohibiting all groups from excluding anyone from voting membership or leadership on the basis of beliefs of any kind. The Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals, widely recognized as the most radical appeals court in the country, upheld Hastings’ decision in a two sentence, unpublished decision.

Casey Mattox, legal counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, and co-counsel on this case alongside CLS attorneys, told luncheon attendees about the impact this case may have on university campuses as well as the far-reaching impact it may have on any Christian ministry. In essence, if the left gets its way, any organization or church that receives state support — including tax exempt status — would be discriminated against if it does not accept behaviors that are contrary to their beliefs.

At the same time, The Family Foundation is working with ADF in seeking legislators who will sign onto amicus briefs it has drafted in a religious liberty case in Forsyth County, N.C. There, a lower court decreed that all prayers at government meetings must be so-called “non-sectarian.” If the lower court is not overturned by the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, it could mean that — for the first time in American history — prayers offered before sessions of legislatures, city councils, and all other public bodies in at least the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, must be censored to exclude all references to a particular deity (e.g., Jesus). The lower court opinion ignores the instruction of the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal appellate and district courts that previously considered this issue and upheld the cherished American tradition of uncensored legislative prayer.

Meanwhile, our policy team is focusing much of our summer research efforts on how we can best protect our First Amendment right to religious expression through the legislative process. We still have yet to see the General Assembly remedy the situation for state police chaplains who remain prohibited from praying publically according to their beliefs, and too many of our local governments have censored prayers at their meetings under the bullying of radical secularists at the ACLU. This must stop.

It is safe to say that our constitutionally protected right to freely exercise our faith in public is in peril. For many of our political leaders the Constitution itself is a nuisance. We must continue to work to ensure that the rights of all religious Americans are protected — and we will.

Since we brought up pastors events and Winning Matters 2009 last post, we thought we’d review a major event that we had a hand in from earlier this month that, in essence, was a launch to the whole idea of more civic activism from people with a Biblical perspective. The Virginia Renewal Project took place at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel on June 4 and 5, and you know it was an important event when certain groups raised hackles about it. 

More than 450 pastors from across Virginia attended, and represented every denomination and ethnicity. The hotel’s grand ballroom was packed as speakers such as historian David Barton, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke of the need to return America to its Godly heritage. 

Barton was especially moving as he related how the Founding Fathers all gave credit for their inspiration to the pastors of the day. We often hear that the Founders were a bunch of  deists and secularists, but Barton’s research and documentation convincingly proves what used to be a common notion taught in America — that this nation was founded primarily by Christians on Judeo-Christian principles. 

Pastors at the conference were encouraged to engage the culture and make a difference by being salt and light in all arenas, even in the political realm.  They were told that despite the threats of the ACLU and People for the American Way, no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status. Everyone left encouraged and inspired to make a difference in our Commonwealth and in our nation.

One of the country’s most successful prison ministries, Prison Fellowship Ministries, founded by Watergate figure Chuck Colson, who became a Christian while serving his prison term for his role in that scandal, and now run by former Virginia Attorney General Mark Early, is headquartered in Lansdowne, in Loudoun County. It’s success in transforming the lives of convicts is praised by people across the political, religious and professional spectrum.

So why would anyone want to single it out from a Virginia law that exempts non-profit groups from paying property taxes? One would have to ask liberal Loudoun Supervisor Stevens Miller, but suddenly trying to squeeze taxes out of a non-profit pretty much tells an organization it’s not wanted.

His stated purpose, as reported in Leesburg Today:

Supervisor Stevens Miller (D-Dulles) said he was interested in looking at whether the Prison Fellowship Ministries Foundation was still eligible for tax exemption, claiming the Lansdowne-based organization discriminated based on religion by only serving Christians, a point which other members of the committee disputed. 

It all started when the Board looked at how it could suck more revenue out of the private sector and into its own coffers. But after examining what these non-profits do for the county — including a medical institute that contributes more than $1 million annually to the county’s fire-rescue and public school systems, and a retired Air Force officers community that contributes tens of thousands of dollars to fire-rescue and in student scholarships — it had a tri-partisan epiphany as Board members Republican, Democrat and independent backed off. Except for Mr. Miller (see Crystal Clear Conservative.) Again, from Leesburg Today:

“I am requesting an investigation,” Miller said. “Otherwise these exemptions will continue in perpetuity and who knows if the organizations have evolved into something we don’t want to [support]. That’s a lot of assessed value.”

So, there you have it. It’s either too Christian or too rich in Mr. Miller’s typically liberal view. Either way, it is a prime target for that mindset, regardless of the evidence his colleagues presented. Maybe Mr. Miller has watched too many horror movies of late — it might evolve into something verrry scaaary.

A successful Christian ministry in Loudoun County that helps inmates evolve into better, productive people? God forbid, right, Mr. Miller?