Changing Laws and Changing Hearts

Bill Bright (1921-2003) is best known as the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, one of the largest campus outreach ministries in the world; author of the famous Four Spiritual Laws evangelism booklet; and producer of the Jesus film, which has been viewed more than eleven billion times in over two thousand different languages, making it one of the most significant evangelistic projects in history.

But Dr. Bright was not just a visionary evangelist who founded Campus Crusade (known today as Cru). He was also the founder of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), America’s “largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.” That’s because he understood that protecting our foundational American freedoms went hand in hand with our ability to preach the gospel without restriction. As Bright said, “I truly believe we are fighting for the very survival of the gospel and of evangelism in America today.” (Bear in mind that he passed away in 2003; even then the assault on our liberties was very real.)

High-Profile Cases Won

Since 2011, the ADF has been directly involved in fifteen major Supreme Court wins, most notably Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, which led directly to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It doesn’t get any bigger than that! Other cases of note that were successfully litigated by the ADF before the Supreme Court include 303 Creative v. Elenis (2023), which was a major victory for Christian freedom of conscience and expression; Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021), on behalf of a Christian student who was blocked from openly sharing his faith on his college campus; and March for Life Education and Defense Fund v. California (2020), stating that employers did not have to “provide their employees with abortion inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception — regardless of their religious or moral convictions.” Had these cases, among many others, been decided differently, our country would look very different than it does today.

Another major Christian legal organization is Liberty Counsel, founded by attorney Mathew Staver. Liberty Counsel has also been involved in major Supreme Court victories, some of them helping to preserve critically important aspects of our religious freedoms. To cite one case in point, on May 2, 2022, Liberty Counsel announced,

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the City of Boston violated the Constitution by censoring a private flag in a public forum open to ‘all applicants’ merely because the application referred to it as a ‘Christian flag.’ The High Court stated that it is not government speech, and because the government admitted it censored the flag because it was referred to as a Christian flag on the application, the censorship was viewpoint discrimination, and there is no Establishment Clause defense.

The ruling was so obvious and the anti-Christian discrimination so blatant that the court ruled 9-0 in favor of the Christian client.

We Need Christian Organizations

Yet without groups like Liberty Counsel litigating these cases, the discrimination might have continued and even increased. Other fine Christian based legal organizations include the ACLJ, founded by attorney Jay Sekulow, as well as the Pacific Justice Institute, Becket, and the Rutherford Institute, among others. We owe a massive debt to these fine organizations, which are helping make America a better place for all citizens. This points to the importance of Christian legal work since without it not only could our essential rights and freedoms be removed, but we could be compelled by the government to say or do things contrary to our faith, resulting in loss of job, expulsion from colleges and universities, steep fines, and even prison sentences if we refused to comply. Even worse, our children could be taken from us and put into state care (foster homes) if we refused to act and speak as the government demanded.

In fact, as I write this in the summer of 2023, California is considering a law that would remove children from the homes of parents who refuse to affirm their child’s perceived gender identity. This is outrageous beyond words, but it’s exactly where things could be heading without Christian legal organizations pushing back and without Christian voters electing representatives who will push back against these godless laws in the halls of Congress, and other elected officials who will appoint righteous judges to the courts.

Illegal Essential Services and Legal Medical Mutilation

Tragically, at this very moment there are at least twenty-two states in America where it is illegal for minors to receive professional counseling to help them deal with unwanted same-sex attractions or unwanted gender identity confusion. Illegal! Even if they had been sexually abused as children, even if their parents supported them fully in their choices, even if the request to see a counselor was entirely their own without any outside coercion, it is now illegal in all these locations for minors to receive these essential services. In fact, in 2018 California came close to passing a bill that would make it illegal for any person of any age to receive such counseling. This is absolutely chilling.

In stark contrast, a ten-year-old boy can be put on dangerous puberty-blocking hormones (that would likely sterilize him for life, not to mention potentially lead to other significant health risks), and a thirteen-year-old girl can have her breasts removed simply because these children are going through a time of gender-identity confusion. And all this is perfectly legal. Talk about calling good evil and evil good. Talk about legislating unrighteous behavior and criminalizing righteous behavior.

That’s why it is so important that we keep fighting for our freedoms of conscience, speech, and religion — in the courts and in the voting booths. If we don’t, it will not be long before pastors will be told what they can and cannot say from the pulpit, Christian schools will be told what portions of the Bible they can affirm and what parts they must denounce, and homeschooling Christian parents will have their kids taken from their care, should they teach anything deemed unacceptable by the state.

Think That Can’t Happen? Think Again

Not a word of this is alarmist or exaggerated in the least, as can be easily documented. In fact, some of the very things I have just listed have already taken place in other countries, while there have been attempts to make this the law here in America. And for several years there has been a pitched battle on a national level as to whether girls can be forced to share bathrooms and locker rooms with boys who identify as girls (including having to change in their presence), not to mention be forced to compete against them in sports. (Both the Obama and Biden administrations have pushed for these policies aggressively, based on so-called “transgender rights.”) The battle is very real.

On a positive note, since the overturning of Roe in June 2022, numerous pro-life bills have been passed, and the momentum continues to grow. As reported by Jordan Boyd for The Federalist in May 2023, “Less than a year after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, half of U.S. states proudly have laws protecting life in the womb between conception and 12 weeks.” She added, “In the last two months alone, Republican legislators and governors in more than half a dozen states enacted laws that save the lives of tens of thousands of unborn babies.” This is excellent news. Innocent lives are being saved.

A State of Emergency

Not only so, but for the first time in its forty-year history, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the world’s largest LGBTQ+ activist organization, declared a state of emergency in June 2023 (for some of the larger context see chapter 4.) The HRC proclaimed,

We have officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year.

More than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year alone, more than doubling last year’s number, which was previously the worst year on record. Our community is in danger, but we won’t stop fighting back — not now, not ever.

I take no pleasure in seeing these fellow Americans upset, feeling that their rights are under attack. But for the most part I believe these legislative efforts are good and righteous pushing back against a destructive LGBTQ+ activism that in the end does far more harm than good. This too is very positive news, and it is imperative — I cannot say this any more clearly — that we continue with these legislative efforts, from the local courts to the halls of Congress and from the desks of governors to the desks of the president. Even a quick study of the Scriptures indicates how important it is to God that righteous laws be put in place.

The above is an excerpt from Dr. Brown’s book, Turn the Tide: How to Ignite a Cultural Awakening (2024). Republished with permission.

Dr. Michael Brown is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. He is the author of more than 40 books, including Can You be Gay and Christian?; Our Hands Are Stained With Blood; and Seize the Moment: How to Fuel the Fires of Revival. You can connect with him on Facebook, X, or YouTube.

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