Why Speak Up?

“And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

— Romans 10:14-15

Across America today, pastors and church leaders are being silenced.

In a nation plagued by wholesale abortion, efforts to fabricate same-sex "marriage," and the growing legal persecution of individual Christians and church congregations, many pastors are being intimidated into silence. Many local, state, and federal government officials are determined to muzzle those who freely proclaim the Gospel and minimize their involvement and impact on America’s spiritual, social, and political culture.

These officials are encroaching as never before on the autonomy of churches and their leaders, to the point that pastors’ ability to proclaim the full counsel of God’s Word is endangered.

Right now – coast to coast – pastors, church leaders and ministry leaders are grappling with a host of legal entanglements. Spurred on, in many cases, by aggressively anti-Christian groups, government agencies are using every means at their disposal to circumvent the First Amendment protections of your God-given freedoms to speak, act and minister in accordance with biblical principles. Some of you are being denied – or unfairly charged for – the right to use public facilities for worship services that are freely available to non-religious groups. Some are facing altered zoning laws and land-use ordinances specifically designed and enforced to restrict religious activities.

Others are having their worship services disrupted by protestors who trespass or block access to church property. Some are dealing with disaffected church staff members who use state and federal regulations to challenge church discipline or employment decisions that are squarely grounded in scriptural precepts.

Perhaps the most intimidating intrusion, though, comes from threat of IRS audits and even potential loss of 501(c)(3) tax exemption for pastors who speak to their congregations – from a scriptural basis – about the positions of political candidates on moral issues.

The future of religious liberty in America hinges in large part on the outcomes of these legal issues … and on the willingness of all pastors and church leaders, whether or not they themselves are directly persecuted, to act, minister and speak up boldly for the God-given freedoms protected by our Constitution.