Why Christians Should Support Religious Liberty for Everyone, Including Non-Christians

There really isn’t any context that can fix statements like those. And this is not the first time JM has made public statements like these. See these from March of 2021…

Is Religious Liberty Really a Dance With the Devil?

John MacArthur: ‘I wouldn’t fight for religious freedom because I won’t fight for idolatry’

As context, the John MacArthur that used to be opposed to the Revolutionary War as ungodly rebellion is now in favor of COVID-rule rebellion. His thinking on issues isn’t what it used to be.

….that religious freedom in the Christian tradition is rather bounded. We are free to voluntarily come into our churches and worship, convene other meetings in other venues, and even make decisions regarding our own employment and associations based on our own religious convictions. We are not, however, free to do things like Aztec/Druidic/etc. human sacrifice, ritual prostitution on the lines of the worship of Aphrodite, or wage Jihad in the way of Boko Haram or Al Qaida. It’s not a moot point, as even today, there is a practice of ritual prostitution in Hinduism that has led to horrendous AIDS issues in Delhi—my son-in-law spent a few months serving in a hospital serving the mostly castrated victims of what we’d consider homosexual rape. I’m somewhat shocked that the British didn’t crack down on that more while they controlled India, to be honest, in the way they mostly ended Sati, the brutal murder of widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres.

In short, the notion of religious freedom combined with individual soul responsibility is in a way a doctrine that results from a fairly modern version of Christianity, and as we go forward, we’re going to need to retain the notion that the preservation of real (Christian) religious freedom requires its bounding.

Larry I know you don’t like me saying stuff about your precious Donald and the Christian Right but it directly applies here.

I am not sure who you are referring to but I think I am the only Larry here. The reference to “your precious Donald Trump and the Christian Right” is confusing because it has no reference to me at all. Trump nor the Christian right is precious to me. I am adamant about churches and pastors staying out of partisan politics in the public realm. So this is just an odd comment. I am not sure why you address any of this to me. I think I reject everything you talk about here, although I am not sure because some of it is a bit hard to follow and I don’t really keep up with it.

Yes, a lot of your posts get unpublished because they are off topic and seem incoherent or confused. This is marginally on topic, but it is filled with a lot of nonsense. You have been asked many times to take care in your posting and I would encourage you to do this.

Joeb wrote:

Trump Congresswomen Lauren Boelbert has said in Sunday church services that the Baptist Churches and Pastors should run the United States and if we lose at the ballot box it’s rigged therefore we can get our guns and take what we want. Genius Madison CAUTHORNE Greene and Matt Gatez have said the same repeatedly.

Joeb, please cite the quotes in context if they were made. If those quotes do not exist as you represent them, then apologize for slander. If those quotes do exist as you represent them- and you are able to site them-, then you will have nothing to apologize for and the rest of us will be able to pass them along as well.

Also I do not understand why Larry is being addressed. I have not seen him post on this thread.

I hope your post is not taken down. I think it is helpful for all who read your comments to know your character behind the keyboard so that they might be a bit more skeptical about what you write. On the other hand this could also be a great opportunity for us all to be encouraged if you respond in a godly way to concerns about how your posted.

Praying for you, Jerry

I cannot in good conscience pass on information about our elected representatives that comes from someone who was not there when they made the statements and he tells me that they said something somewhere (no specifics even where) that he interprets to mean such and such. No direct quotes or context of the quotes was given by Joeb, so I am not in a position to warn others about these representatives based on the information that Joeb has given us.

I did find some quotes from Boebert from a Sept 13 Yahoo news article. Here is what they wrote:

Later in her speech, Ms Boebert suggested that the Christian church had “relinquished too much authority to government.”

“We should not be taking orders from the government, the government needs to be looking at the church and saying “how do we do this effectively?” she said.

I am Baptist and one of our distinctives is separation of church and state. It seems that even among Baptists, there are some that think the church should get guidance from the government, while there are others who think that that the church should tell the government what to do. I believe that neither should be the case. At the same time, I think the government could learn a lot if they looked to the Lord and asked how he would have us do things more effectively. If that is what she meant, then I cannot disagree with her. Still, I want to be careful about assuming what she meant one way or the other. I would hope others would as well.

[Joeb]

Anyone who defends the Christian Right and Trump at this point is in sin.

I don’t question your character at all, but you have no authority to make this claim.

I view a vote for Trump and the GOP as a vote against the Nancy Pelosi Democratic machine. Joeb do you have any alternatives for me?

The 1st Amendment is a treasure and … worth defending.

https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/page/things-you-need

Britain doesn’t have it! https://tinyurl.com/3dpf3j5f

Impacts street preaching in UK https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/04/30/why-are-the-police-handcuffing…

You’re so focused on Trump and company that you haven’t answered my question. He and they are fairly irrelevant to my locality. As Tip O’Neal once said, “All politics is local.” So far the national and state GOP has done little to make any difference in my Congressional district.

The tenor of your remarks is so vitriolic that I pretty much ignore them.

Larry I owe you an apology. Sorry for offending you. My fault.

You didn’t offend me. You were simply incorrect to associate me with views I don’t hold.

However, remember that one of the biggest misleading statistics (i.e., lies) from the 2016 election was the evangelical support of Trump. Most evangelicals voted against Trump when there was another option during the primaries. Had all the evangelicals voted for the same primary candidate, Trump would have almost certainly never been elected. However their vote was split between multiple candidates, thus diluting their power. They supported Trump only when he was the only option to Clinton. So it is clear from primary data that most evangelicals voted for someone else when they had the chance. So it would be nice to be done with that story. My guess is that even now, evangelicals would gladly support another candidate. There are some very strong evangelical Trump supporters. But my guess is that most are not.

You would be well-served to document these claims you are making about these things you claim are being said. You would also be well-served to stay on topic. Here, in a post on religious freedom, you talk very little about religious freedom. You do manage to work in Liberty, MSU, Denhollander, BJU, the SBC, the Duggars, and more. Keep on topic.

Larry wrote:

You would be well-served to document these claims you are making about these things you claim are being said. You would also be well-served to stay on topic. Here, in a post on religious freedom, you talk very little about religious freedom. You do manage to work in Liberty, MSU, Denhollander, BJU, the SBC, the Duggars, and more. Keep on topic.

Further Joeb continues to denigrate evangelicals and godly pastors (if they have done wrong we cannot call them godly and they need to be held accountable. If there is no evidence they have done wrong, then we must not slander them). Finally it is racist to focus on the color of an evangelical’s skin. We can talk about people’s positions but I agree with Martin Luther King Jr. (note what day it is today) that we ought to judge a man by the content of his character, not the color of his skin.

Joe, please note I referenced the local Democratic machine currently run by Nancy Pelosi. I wasn’t referring to “all” Democrats.

[Joeb]

Rob I don’t vote based on all Democrats being demons. I gave that up after 35 years of voting a straight Republican ticket. I see no difference between the extreme right and the Extreme left. Just different sins. SNIP