Bibliographic information:
Johnson, James J.S. “Fighting Over Furniture and Faith.” Acts & Facts 39.12 (December 2010);8-9.
Description:
Description
This article chronicles a recent example of religious liberty deprivation, comparing it to apostasy-triggered struggles in Puritan-established churches, when once-Puritan churches departed into Unitarianism (catalyzing faithful Trinitarians to seek opportunities to practice their faith in other institutional contexts, despite losing material assets when they “abandoned” a “sinking ship”). The analysis clarifies that the recent 1st Amendment litigation in Texas, involving the THECB’s ban on Master of Science degrees by the Institute for Creation Research Graduate School, is a ground-breaking precedent in U.S. religious liberty deprivation (and in academic freedom deprivation), since, unlike many creation-vs.-evolution lawsuits, the ICRGS M.S. program was 100% “private”, i.e., no government funding was involved, such that the usual “Establishment Clause” challenges were legally and logically inapplicable. The article also reviews how “winning” is defined, contrasting the worldly and Biblical definitions of “winning”, an important theological insight to appreciate whenever worldly powers are persecuting God (by persecuting His people).
Publisher:
Institute for Creation Research (website: http://www.icr.org/article/5714 )