Recently, the Pew Research Center published a study with troubling findings and a descriptive title: “Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion.” (You can see the study here.)
This study tracked increasing prevalence of governmental restrictions and social hostilities in all five major regions of the world. United States is no exception to this phenomenon. In fact, joining countries like Afghanistan and Egypt, United States was listed among 16 countries with the biggest jump in religious hostility.
At CRE, we are not surprised by the study, having encountered religious hostility in various parts of the United States first hand. Presently, in Buffalo, New York, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Pensacola, Florida, we represent individual Christians who have been threatened with criminal arrest for handing out gospel tracts on public sidewalks. We have a case in Minneapolis where the Park Board is determined to keep a gentleman from handing out free Bibles in a public park. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, they consider evangelism with tracts to be “solicitation” and have a law banning the activity. And we just filed lawsuit in New Orleans, where the City Council extinguishes any attempt to share Christian faith on Bourbon Street at night.
To be sure, the tide is high and a flood of religious restrictions have hit our country, reaching our shores and going far inland. We’re in obvious need of a sandbag dike for flood protection.
That’s the modest role of CRE. Making use of our courts and the constitutional freedoms that bind them, we stack up legal sandbags, stemming the flood of religious attacks against our faith. And, by God’s grace, we will continue to do so until the threat cedes.
Posted by Nate Kellum
