On this week's edition of The 3, highlighting three stories of relevance in the Christian community, we find that Christian leaders are applauding a move from the President that purports to eliminate vestiges of Critical Race Theory in government training. Also, a U.S. Senator has said "no" to a demand from an atheist organization to cease to post Bible verses online. Plus, California churches are in various stages of opposing government attempts to limit worship, ostensibly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
President issues order to block "critical race theory," Christian leaders opposing CRT commend
The debate about and exposure of what is known as Critical Race Theory has flared within the Southern Baptist Convention since the haphazard passage of a resolution at its annual meeting in Birmingham last year, when messengers - at least those who were left in the building during the closing hours of the convention - passed a resolution branding CRT and Intersectionality as "analytical tools" in understanding race relations that should be subjected to Scripture. A number of Christian leaders basically believe that to submit these worldly, divisive philosophies that label people as oppressors and the oppressed based on racial and cultural generalizations to Scripture would mean to repudiate them totally.
The CRT resolution, also known as Resolution 9, was one of the factors leading to the formation of a group called the Conservative Baptist Network, which has thousands of adherents on social media and relates on its website that its Steering Council is made up of, among others, "former Atlanta fire chief Kelvin Cochran, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, past SBC President Charles Stanley, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Vice President Tom Phillips, and immediate past SBC Executive Committee Chairman Mike Stone."
The network and other Christian leaders, including Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries, which has released a video and book, called, By What Standard, that includes information on the infiltration of evangelical Christianity by critical race theorists have offered praise to President Trump's executive order that, according to FoxNews.com, ends "'critical race theory' training in federal agencies, with White House officials calling it “anti-American propaganda." Fox goes on to report:
Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote a memo informing agencies of Trump's instruction to stop using controversial forms of training on “critical race theory,” “white privilege” and “any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either...that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or...that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil.”
“It has come to the President's attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date "training" government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda,” Vought wrote in the memo to heads of federal agencies and offices.
The Conservative Baptist Network offered gratitude for the Adminstration's action, saying:
The Conservative Baptist Network has been clear from the beginning regarding this divisive, anti-gospel ideology. The Network strongly believes in a just society for all based on biblical truth, opposing racism and sexism in all forms, and therefore rejects worldly ideologies infiltrating the Southern Baptist Convention, including Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and other unbiblical agendas deceptively labeled as “Social Justice.”
U.S. Senator declares intent to continue posting Bible verses online
Even though there are those that attempt to label politics as something that Christians should not participate in, especially when the philosophies of other believers differ from their own, it is gratifying to see that politicians, governmental leaders, actually apply their faith to their practice of lawmaking. An example is found at the ChristianNews.net website, which announced that:
A Louisiana senator says he won’t stop posting from the pages of Scripture on Sundays after the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) requested that he take down such quotes from his official social media pages and refrain from citing Scripture on his government accounts in the future.
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation has demanded that I stop sharing Bible verses with you. The left won’t bully me into canceling Christianity. Their request is denied,” Sen. Bill Cassidy posted to his accounts on Tuesday.
FFRF had sent a threatening letter to the senator, to which the article links, in August saying that a "concerned Louisiana resident," who was not named in the letter, had complained about Cassidy's inclusion of Scripture online. ChristianNews.net reported last week that:
On Tuesday, Cassidy said that he would not oblige the Church-State separation group’s request, referring to the letter as an attempt to “bully” him into “canceling Christianity” from the public square.
The following day, FFRF published a news release opining that Cassidy was being “unconstitutionally stubborn” as he “doubled down on his obstinacy.”
California church continues its fight against governor's order
A California church's legal team is declaring that church is "essential" in its fight against draconian restrictions on worship in the Golden State. That's according to CBN.com, which reports that:
A California church has appealed its case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals concerning Gov. Gavin Newsom's ban on all indoor worship services, including Bible studies, and singing.The pastor is Che Ahn, and on August 13, Pasadena officials had "threatened fines and criminal charges against Pastor Ahn, the church, and staff of up to one year in prison for noncompliance..." Just last week, a Federal district court had written an order rejecting a request for a preliminary injunction against the governor, which paved the way for Liberty Counsel to appeal to the 9th Circuit. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel stated, "The church has been essential for 2,000 years, and the First Amendment recognizes that the free exercise of religion is essential," adding, "The church is now more essential than ever because there are so many hurting people, especially in California, where the governor has decimated the economy and hurt many people by his draconian restrictions."
The religious rights law group Liberty Counsel is representing the Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry. Attorneys argue that the governor's actions are contradictory, as he continues to encourage thousands of people to gather for protests against social injustice.
The pastor of a large California church that was fined over $50,000 for holding indoor worship services despite adhering to social distancing guidelines said that even as the county continues to increase penalties, the church will remain open.
Jack Trieber, pastor of North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, California, said Tuesday that Santa Clara County posted an additional order on the church’s doors this week and is fining the congregation $5,000 for each service.
As of last Thursday, the church has been fined $52,750.
Treiber is quoted as saying, "I'm in charge of the spiritual health of the people in this city and in this area,” adding, “I've been trying to do it for 45 years. Though health is [of the] utmost importance, spiritual health is supreme. Because we've been locked out in this county of churches, suicide is up, domestic violence, addiction is up, homelessness is up, alcoholism is up. We need to get back to worshiping God. I am commanded to worship God.” Liberty Counsel is also representing that church. The article also notes, "Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks was found to be in contempt of court for violating the state's COVID-19 health orders."
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