Gov. Chris Christie was recently interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News and I thought he did fairly well. I appreciate Christie’s candor and yet I disagree with him on a number of policy issues. One issue in particular arose during the interview, which you can watch above. The question of religious liberty begins at 13:38.
Chris Wallace: “Should businesses be allowed to decide whether or not to serve gays or anyone else based on religious freedom?”
Gov. Christie: “Religious institutions should be able to decide how they conduct their religious activity. The rest of the folks in the United States need to follow the law.”
Aside from the fact that Wallace’s question failed to be sufficiently nuanced, Christie’s answer fails to consider what religious liberty entails.
Religious liberty entails that people have the freedom to express their religious beliefs through actions outside of the church building: in social settings, in their home, at their business, etc. The Apostle Paul wrote, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). If “the rest of the folks in the United States need to follow the law,” then Gov. Christie thinks that people do not have the right to follow the dictates of their moral conscience. This is bad news not only for Christians, but people of other faiths.
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