What's love got to do with it?

In the Constitution of revolutionary France the only discussion of religion is limited to acknowledging the right of people to have their own opinions about it. In Canada today, religious freedom is essentially limited to two specific rights - the right to hold a belief, and the right to worship. It is notable that the right to hold beliefs (or opinions), and acts of worship were not a focus of the American Bill of Rights. It should be obvious to the casual observer that the right to think something in one's own head is no right at all, and that the right to sit in a church pew is no more meaningful than the right to sit in a movie theater.

America's founding fathers did not waste Constitutional ink on meaningless platitudes. When the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, there were those that argued that it was unnecessary because the Constitution did not grant the Federal government explicit authority to infringe on those enumerated rights. Fortunately the foresight of the Founders prevailed. We have repeatedly seen that the existence of the 2nd Amendment has been vital for the protection of the rights of individuals to retain the means of their own defense. Sadly, it is clear that we are about to learn whether the 1st Amendment will prove sufficient to protect religious freedom in America.

Amendment I. 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 the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

If the free exercise of religion, individual speech, the press, or the peaceful assemblage of certain groups, were not potentially offensive or controversial they would not need special treatment in the Bill of Rights. The right to not bother anybody, or not be offensive, is not something needing a great deal of protection. The 1st Amendment fundamentally acknowledges the right of the people to offend each other. The Federal Government was never intended to be the arbiter of individual discourse. As popular as it may be to ridicule and condemn Christians in popular culture today, those that are asserting that Christians should leave their religion at church, or that they should be prohibited from engaging in certain types of business are the motivators behind the free exercise clause in the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. I have the right to offend you with my religion, with my speech, with my blog, and by hanging out with people that share my views.

A very odd concept of compartmentalization has crept into the national dialogue, and American culture in general. The idea that a person can just put on the work self on Monday, the happy hour self in the evening, and the Christian self on Sunday is a modern concept. The situational self is a myth. What happens in Vegas is actually as much a reflection of one's values as what happens anywhere else. Humans are complex creatures, but people don't swap out aspects of themselves like changing shirts (barring a significant mental disorder). Our personalities and convictions are not situational. They are constant aspects of who we are.

My faith, my Christianity, is not an activity - it is a state of being. It is tragic that there are nations on earth in which public worship is prohibited. But make no mistake, the right to worship publicly is only a sliver of the free exercise rights acknowledged in the Bill of Rights. The right to free exercise of religion is the right to be a Christian in all aspects of one's life.

Loving our neighbor does not mean the same thing to Christians that it means to non-Christians. Christ came to redeem us from our sin, not to enable us to revel in spiritual brokenness. It is interesting, in the most perverse sort of way, that we so frequently see non-Christians attempting to coerce Christians into conforming to the world by quoting scripture or by voicing their understanding of Christian values. A CNN reporter condescendingly chastised a private business owner recently over not showing the love of Christ by being willing to serve their fellow man at a gay wedding. But the simple truth is that a lot of Christians would consider it unloving to participate in a same-sex wedding ceremony.

For many Christians weddings are typically a cause for great joy, but a same-sex wedding represents a spiritual tragedy. It is not about hatred or condemnation of a sinful act. It is a cause for sorrow and regret for Christians that see people, perhaps even their friends, rejecting God's plan for their lives. Some Christians may not see it that way, but many do. I don't think most people would find it offensive for a Christian baker to refuse to cater a divorce celebration, or a swinger's party. But to conflate that refusal with hate is a mistake. A Christian that participates in activities that draw people deeper into their sin and further from the possibility of a right relationship with God is not motivated by love. It is not love to participate in, or celebrate another's self-inflicted harm.

America's founders enshrined a spiritual heritage in national mottos, letters, speeches, and monuments - where their contemporaries in the French Revolution set about efforts to de-Christianize France, ban the display of the cross, and execute Christians that refused to conform. We see that ideas like banning the Ten Commandments from court rooms, or the opinion that one's faith should not be part of their public life would not have been unfamiliar concepts to America's founders. The anti-Christian elements of the enlightenment compelled America's founders to protect the rights of Christians to be Christians in all aspects of life. Anti-Christian movements are not anything new in the world, but the growing number of Americans clamoring for the de-Christianization of America is something we haven't seen before, and "love" has nothing to do with that.

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you." - John 15:18-19