Author: amadmin

Texas evangelist yields pulpit for Ukraine”s acting president to share faith on Easter

Keller-based evangelist Michael Gott saw a providential moment and seized it when he yielded his preaching time on Easter morning to Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov.

Ukrainians attending the service at a large and crowded Baptist church in Kiev were unaware that Turchynov, a fellow Baptist and an occasional lay preacher, would be there when they gathered to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, Gott said in a statement provided to the Southern Baptist TEXAN. 

Turchynov, designated as acting president following protests and bloodshed in the former Soviet republic, spoke to the crowd for more than 20 minutes about his faith in Jesus Christ, noting his deep appreciation for their prayers and referring to them several times as “dear brothers and sisters,” Gott said.

Gott, in the Ukraine on an evangelistic tour with the Arkansas Baptist Master’Singers choir, said he urged the president to take the opportunity to encourage his fellow Ukrainians.

“Mr. President, I honor you for the courage you have to stand before this nation as a humble, born-again Christian,” Gott told Turchynov from his seat near the leader. “While the world is watching, let them hear you confess Jesus Christ as the risen Lord.” 

Gott said Turchynov was “gracious in his words of encouragement.”

When it was announced Turchynov was in attendance, the Baptist church broke out in applause—unusual for a Ukrainian church, Gott noted.

Gott said Turchynov’s address to the church was “a historic moment. Never before has an acting Ukrainian president attended a Baptist worship service. Never. And I would remind all of us that this is the same Ukraine that once harshly persecuted Baptists and called them ‘a despised cult.’ But also this is the Ukraine in which Nikita Khrushchev once said, ‘Ukraine does not need Jesus Christ—they have me!’”

Gott said he even joked with Turchynov that he would make a good evangelist, yielding a “Thank you” and a smile from the head of state.

Later in the day, Gott spoke to an estimated 20,000 people at Maidan, in the heart of Kiev, where he reminded the open-air crowd and a live national television audience that political leadership would not solve the unrest plaguing the nation.

“A new president is not the solution to Ukraine’s problems,” Gott said. “This nation needs a new bir­th — a spiritual awakening.” 

Gott commended the nation for uniting to oust a corrupt leader, but said the lasting hope for Ukraine would be found in kneeling before the risen Lord.

The pro-Western government took over after Viktor Yanukovich, the Moscow-backed president, fled the capital amid civil unrest after his refusal, under Russian pressure, to strengthen ties with the European Union.

Moscow refuses to acknowledge the acting Kiev government and reportedly has troops positioned along its border with Ukraine. In March Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in what the United States condemned as an illegal “land grab.”

Ukrainians need Christians worldwide to join them in prayer, Gott said.

“The situation in Ukraine reminds all of us how we need to become world Christians and to recognize that some of these major events taking place in the world directly affect our brothers and sisters in Christ, and so we all need a new sensitivity about the work of God going on in many places in the world.

“But for Ukraine in particular, we need to imagine the anguish and the struggle in the hearts of these people,” Gott said. “An invasion from Russia in Ukraine would be disastrous and it would almost force the world to go back to the Cold War mentality. Ukraine could not withstand a Russian military invasion. We need to pray for peace, and we need to ask for God to intervene, and we need to recognize that all of this indirectly affects the work of the Great Commission. Let us ask God to bless the people of Ukraine.”

During his time there, Gott has also visited with the Ukrainian Baptist Union president, Viacheslev Nesteruk, thanking him for his support and adding, “We have come to lift up Jesus Christ and to see people drawn to him.”

The choir tour is covering seven cities in western Ukraine and is done with an official invitation from the Ukrainian minister of culture that gives the Michael Gott International ministry permission to hold events in public buildings, Gott said.

Our ministries are not competitors

The Southern Baptist Cooperative Program has taken a beating over the past few decades. It is well known that the total received for worldwide missions has declined in real, post-inflation dollars. We have more churches and wealthier churches, but those churches have reduced their giving significantly in many cases. On the local level, church members give a drastically smaller percentage of their incomes than did their parents and grandparents. I maintain that the decline of the Cooperative Program is not a failure of marketing or branding but one of discipleship in the lives of Christians and nearsightedness on the part of churches. And no one has a better idea for addressing the Great Commission.

That last point matters. Even as some outside the SBC, those who’ve lived with societal missions for 100 years, express admiration for the CP, some more familiar with our cooperative giving plan have started to admire societal giving. As you’d expect, this “new” idea is only better for those ministries the innovators like best. I do respect the missionary heart of those who rob Judea to reach the uttermost parts of the world, but I also think it is shortsighted.

The dalliance with societal missions within the SBC has often aimed at blessing the International Mission Board. IMB President Tom Elliff has been careful to uplift CP, but he passionately lays out the problem—too little money means too few missionaries around the world. This reality has drawn many of us into a version of societal missions. It can only work for a short time and it will not address the causes for long.
Here’s what I mean: It may start when pastors decide to send more money around the world by reallocating mission funds in favor of some causes and to the detriment of others. By some, theological education is deemed less important, so world missions gets some of the money that would go to the six SBC seminaries through the adopted SBC allocation budget. It’s important to note that many of these supporters of world missions continue to uphold the importance of the ministries being cut. This is a bit of a mixed message.

When prominent pastors in the SBC make this case, saying, “This may not be for everyone. It’s just what we think we should do,” they are downplaying their real influence among the churches. We know their names because they lead high profile ministries, host pastor conferences and speak at denominational meetings. What they do, some others will do, and partly because they’ve done it. There is a stewardship of influence that should be given more consideration.

That stewardship of influence is why I say it’s a mixed message to claim that ministries to which a church lowers or cuts funding are important but not important enough to receive adequate support. If the ministry, seminary or state convention still has an important role and if a prominent leader leads his church to lower funding, and if that leader has influence across his region, is he actually OK with other churches, maybe most churches, doing as he has done partly because he did it? He should be OK with it and say so. In fact, he’d better be comfortable with those ministries declining or shutting down if he’s going to lead a parade away from supporting them. 

Yes, I affirm the right of churches to discern for themselves God’s will regarding what they fund and support. It’s only on my worst days that I wish some mortal man could tell Baptist churches what to do. I also affirm the leadership of pastors in helping their churches discern and pursue God’s will. In fact, I don’t reject the notion that some ministries, even some aspects of denominationalism, can pass out of importance or relevance. What I do have trouble affirming is the idea that something is still significant, it has even benefited our own ministry at times we can remember, and we actually believe it should continue to benefit ministries more needy than our own, but somebody else needs to carry that ball because we’ve moved on to another level of understanding what missions means. Others inevitably will want to join us on that higher plane and the ministries we’ve affirmed with our mouths will starve to death.

Southern Baptists have a significant presence in and strategic vision for the nations for exactly the same reasons that we have cutting-edge Baptist scholars teaching our pastors and missionaries-in-waiting. It is for exactly that same reason we have a strategy for reaching American towns and people groups few have heard of. It is for the same reason that rock star “yellow shirts” show up almost as soon as the tornado sirens stop wailing. It is the same reason that Southern Baptists are doing serious work in revitalizing dying churches. We can do these things because the Cooperative Program funds ministries your church doesn’t need at this moment. We can do these things because some people are empowered to study unreached corners of Texas or to prepare disaster relief volunteers with the same intensity a local pastor gives to his own church.

Yes, we need more missionaries. That will take money currently going to other things. But those competitors for funding are rarely other ministries. The money needed to reach the nations is in the same place as the money you need to reach your own community—largely tied up in credit card interest, cars, clothes and entertainment. As I said, it’s a discipleship issue. And that is what your church and mine should be about: making disciples, joyful givers, out of lost people and the spiritually immature. 

Celebrating directors of missions

Serving the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is one of the most enjoyable experiences God has ever given me. Thank you, SBTC, for the privilege of being a servant to the churches. There is no better place than being in the center of God’s will.

I must confess to you that I did have another ministry assignment that I enjoyed just as much. For a brief three and one half years, I served the Northwest Baptist Association in Bentonville, Ark., as director of missions. When my predecessor welcomed me into my new place of service, he said, “You have just taken the best job in the Southern Baptist Convention.” There was a lot of truth in his remarks.

During the time in Bentonville I was able to build on the firm foundation of those who had served before me. Because of the exploding population growth, the association was ready to focus on starting new churches. We created a church planter endowment that funded church planting. We saw new congregations spring up as the towns and cities grew.

Being in worship with the pastors was one of my highlights every week. After pastoring for more than 20 years in Louisiana I wanted to be a DOM that blessed the pastors. Every Monday between Labor Day and Memorial Day—except for a Christmas break—we met for prayer, preaching and praise. It was incredible. Just a couple of years ago I was invited back to speak on a Monday at the Pastors’ Fellowship. The room was packed. The fellowship was sweet. I was energized by simply being there.

Equipping the churches through resources was important. My time at the association was at the very beginning of the computer age, so it is very different now. But there are still unique needs of churches specific to the locale. While virtually any kind of assistance can be found on the Internet, hands-on training remains valuable.

Assisting pastorless churches was a challenge but well worth it. When requested, I provided guidance to churches during a leaderless time. No one should try to place a pastor in a church—that is God’s business. But we can be instruments God uses to get a person considered.

I was called upon to be a listening ear to a hurting pastor or staff member. Having a personal relationship made it possible to be involved in the lives of God’s servants. It is an honor to love on those who love the Lord.

Associational life has changed considerably in the last 20 years, even the last 10. The monolithic SBC is no more. Brand loyalty went by the wayside. Now ministries have to prove themselves to be trustworthy, viable, and to some like me, doctrinally sound.

Once, associations were the gatekeepers of Baptist life. Confessionalism started in the association. Unfortunately, some associations have come to the lowest common doctrinal denominator. The three-fold cord is the same for the association as it is for the SBTC—“Biblically Based, Kingdom Focused and Missionally Driven.” Having a doctrinal standard that all churches can agree upon is essential for true unity.

Secondly, do something for Jesus. Being kingdom focused means having a strategy to make a difference with the gospel in your geographic area. Missionally driven associations are staffed by people who want to exhibit the Philippians 2 mindset of Jesus. Be servants to the churches.    

No doubt in my time in Bentonville, I didn’t do everything right. I wish I could have done more. At that time and in that place it was the “best job in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Associational Missions Week is May 18-24.

Is the SBC relevant to a 21st-century world?

DALLAS—A good question and one worth asking: Does our SBC have anything significant to say to this 21st century? I ask the question here in response to the contemporary idea that the age of denominationalism is past.

It does us no good—and actually does us harm—to dwell on our size, numerical goals and our heritage. We can’t live in the past. Our heritage is only as meaningful as its most recent application, meaning that all we have done in reaching the nations for Christ does not guarantee us relevance in the future. Being “Great Commission People” and “People of the Book” means daily seeking opportunities to engage the world with the power of the Gospel but in humility and with a heart of service.

“What relevancy does the SBC have today?” It’s a good question and here’s my answer.

1. The SBC foundationally has a vision for missions and evangelism. Taking the gospel to the nations is in our DNA. Never could our denominational forefathers have predicted the geopolitical complexities of the 21st century, but the SBC is structured to literally reach the “uttermost” parts of earth.

2. There is strength in our cooperative efforts. We can do more together than we can by ourselves. Get beyond the cliché that many people have made this statement to be and contemplate its weight.
We currently have more missionaries under appointment and more volunteers serving around the world than any other evangelical denomination. No one church, especially the smaller churches that comprise the majority in the SBC, can so completely cover the globe with resources, but together they can.

The irony is that these totals are the tip of an iceberg. There is no reason why Southern Baptists couldn’t involve thousands more missionaries and give billions of dollars to support them through the Cooperative Program and our missions offerings. We have the resources; we just have to give them.

3. Southern Baptists have a heart for soul-winning. We take seriously God’s mandate to share the good news of salvation. All ministries are important and have their place, but the greatest service we can provide to a lost world is personally introducing people to the Lamb who sits on the throne. We have a long way to go to implement this vital soul-winning strategy, but it is in our hearts to do so. We just need to do it.

4. We love the local church. We understand that simply leading others to salvation is only part of the process. Jesus created the church—his bride—to be an integral element in his relationship with us. It is through the church that we grow spiritually. From the church we are sent out, and to the church we bring the lost for refuge.

5. We have a clearly defined doctrinal base. The Baptist Faith and Message outlines the area in which we move theologically and is a statement of “our faithfulness to the doctrines revealed in Holy Scripture.”

6. Southern Baptists celebrate the autonomy of the local church. There is no hierarchical structure to force conformity on issues. Autonomy creates enormous freedom, and also tension (our structure actually invites controversy!). No action by the SBC or its entities is binding on any church. We volunteer to cooperate and when we do it creates a bond of steel.

7. We have developed the most effective theological training anywhere in the world through our seminaries with more than 16,000 students enrolled. In fact, all six of our seminaries rank in the top 15 largest seminaries in America. Men and women are formally being developed to impact the world with the gospel and that impact will be felt for generations to come.

8. Resources provided by Southern Baptist entities have had a significant global impact in cultures worldwide and beyond our denomination.

Am I boasting? Absolutely not! I trumpet God’s blessings on us as a people and recognize that He has worked through us in spite of ourselves. Can we do more? Absolutely! Think how God would use us if we totally and humbly submitted ourselves individually and corporately to His leadership.

Is the SBC a lost cause? Absolutely not! Remember, the story we are sharing with the world is one of grace, redemption, restoration and usefulness. Let’s extend grace to each other and stay on point to be used of God. If we will, I believe that not only will good come from the SBC, but that the best is yet to come.

James T. Draper Jr. is interim president of Criswell College in Dallas, president emeritus of LifeWay Christian Resources and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The GamePlan aims to turn personal evangelism “moments” into a movement

Nathan Lorick’s prayer is that “God would take a moment and turn it into a movement”—the movement being a cycle of Great Commission events, namely praying for, evangelizing and discipling converts in a New Testament model.

“Imagine church members going from not actually sharing their faith at all to now discipling someone they led to Christ by walking them through the process of knowing Christ and then making him known,” Lorick, evangelism director at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, explained.

It’s called “The GamePlan”—not a program, Lorick emphasized—but an initiative to get churches and families on mission together in reaching lost friends and family members with the gospel and following up in discipleship.

Tasked in his role with helping SBTC churches evangelize their state, Lorick said the appeal of The GamePlan is its simplicity and intentionality. The materials needed are minimal—a card or refrigerator magnet with five blank spaces for names is all a participant needs. The plan consists of:

  • identifying five lost people,
  • committing to pray daily for them,
  • planning for a moment of sharing the gospel message with them,
  • presenting the gospel,
  • plugging in the new believer to a local church for baptism and discipleship.

Lorick rolled out The GamePlan during the Empower Evangelism Conference with the help of Chan Gailey, former college and NFL head coach with numerous teams, including the Dallas Cowboys.

Sometimes churches, and even pastors, lose their urgency for sharing the gospel outside the church walls and need a renewed focus to help them, Lorick said.

“This gives a pastor a simple way to get his people excited again about sharing their faith with others in a way that creates a buzz in the congregation and within families as moms and dads and their kids pray daily together over a list of people God has placed on their hearts. This initiative, especially with its sports theme, has a wide appeal,” Lorick said.

The GamePlan materials include brochures with football, basketball and baseball themes in English and a soccer theme in Spanish. There are also refrigerator magnets and pocket cards with five blanks for the names of the people each participant is praying for.

Lorick said he is praying that those “moments” that lead to conversions will add up to a movement across Texas as people begin identifying and fervently praying for the lost and discipling them as reproducing believers.

He knows of churches that are planning tailgate parties to kick off the initiative. Being intentional is a significant part of effective evangelism, he noted.

“Imagine a pastor asking his church members, ‘Who are your five? Who are you praying for?’ And, ‘How can I pray for them?’”

The SBTC evangelism team is available to help churches implement the initiative. To order The GamePlan materials, visit sbtcwebstore.com.
For more information on the initiative, visit sbtexas.com/evangelism. The SBTC evangelism team may be reached toll free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC).

Killeen church bends knees in prayer for Fort Hood

KILLEEN—The congregation of Skyline Baptist Church in Killeen, near the sprawling Fort Hood Army post, has seen tragedy before.

On Wednesday night, after a lone gunman at Fort Hood killed three people and injured 16 others before turning the gun on himself, the church gathered like they always do midweek—albeit with a few members missing from a base-wide security lockdown—and bent their knees on the church auditorium carpet in prayer.

Army Maj. Kevin Thompson, a signal officer at Fort Hood, serves as co-interim pastor of the church along with an Army chaplain, also from the base, and left the post about 20 minutes before the shooting—reportedly at the hands of a soldier being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Once at the church, a 25-minute prayer service, heavily focused on the shootings, preceded the Wednesday night Bible study. 

“It was kind of conversational and people were telling details of conversations they had with those they knew on the base or the latest of what they had heard on the news,” Thompson told the TEXAN. “Generally we were praying for the victims and their families and that somehow God would find a way to prompt people to call out to him through this incident, no matter how horrific.” 

Thompson said the prayer time, as usual, involved groups of two or three gathered together, pleading in prayer.

Church members said they knew of no one from the church who was shot, but the unit of one of the church members was directly affected by the tragedy. 

“There’s going to be a lot of anguish, particularly this time,” Thompson said, alluding to past incidents at the base, including the 2009 massacre by Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is awaiting the death penalty for killing 13 people and injuring 32. 

“From a spiritual standpoint, pray that people realize that you never know when your time is,” Thompson added, “and that they would trust Christ before it is too late.” 

Elaine Clark, a longtime Killeen resident and former Killeen school counselor, was at her usual post—teaching AWANA to a meager children’s crowd at Skyline. 

About half of the children and adult volunteers were absent because they live on Fort Hood—home to more than 45,000 soldiers, families and personnel—and weren’t able to leave, she said. 

“Children have questions and they need to be answered,” said Clark, who noted that last night, appropriately, they were studying and memorizing 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 

Explaining to a young girl the importance of knowing God is always in control, even in danger, the girl responded to Clark: “You know God sent Jesus to die for that man,” the girl said of the shooter. 

“That just spoke to my heart how God speaks even to these little ones in these terrible times,” Clark said. 

A Facebook user, Clark said she has a community of friends she’s in frequent contact with who have ties to Killeen and Fort Hood, and that prayers are being sent up for the survivors, the families of the victims, and for the family of the shooter. 

“That family has a lot to go through and I’m sure they will have questions that will never be answered.” 

She related the fear she said pervades the base in times like these to her own experience of surviving a nighttime intruder who was chased out of the family home years ago by her husband. 

“It was a long time before we felt safe again,” she said. “Considering Fort Hood is a home for so many people, it makes you question that you’ll ever be safe again.” 

Clark said prayers are needed for children in the Killeen-Fort Hood area, that “they would cross paths with people who will share Jesus with them and that God loves them and he is with us even when we are afraid. … They don’t have to be afraid with Jesus as their friend.” 

Thompson said he had not returned to the base yet, but that prior to the shooting morale had been high in his unit because they had rated well in a recent field exercise.  

The day following the shooting, “Understandably, the people I have talked to, there is a somber tone in their voice,” he said.

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Better that Sandy Hook shooter was never born?

The father of Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza sums up his thoughts in an interview released last month by saying that he wishes Adam had never been born. If we look at his final act in a vacuum, that view is understandable: 27 murdered, including 20 children, and one more if you count his life, which he took after his killing spree.

Judging from interviews, Peter Lanza appears to be a man who wanted to love his son, not some lunatic father who created a monster.

If the inevitable was that this warped 20-year-old would massacre children and adults in an unfettered rage, where’s the good in Adam Lanza’s life? It’s a fair question. Perhaps the deeper question is if it was inevitable, then weren’t Adam’s actions only a matter of matter—a design defect or mental illness, perhaps a killing gene, which created a monster who was predestined to emerge, sooner or later, in a killing spree.

If that line of thinking about nature and nurture (and it’s not clear from interviews what his father believes) is true, it has scary implications for the realm of bio-ethics. Would genetic markers of mental illness or social disability, even mild autism that could result in anti-social behavior, warrant the same rejection in the form of abortion that Down syndrome babies (more than 90 percent are never born) get now?

I think we can do better by asking who Adam Lanza could have been in an intact, loving, nurturing family with a mom and dad under the same roof and living in a community of connected, involved people, be they extended family or neighbors or friends.

Peter and Nancy Lanza were normal by all accounts. And therein lies the problem. Normal won’t do. Especially for the Adam Lanzas of the world.

In an interview in the latest New Yorker magazine, Peter Lanza said he is certain Adam, whom he said he had not seen for two years prior to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December 2012, would have killed him too given the chance.

“You can’t get any more evil. … How much do I beat up on myself about the fact that he’s my son? A lot,” he told the magazine.

Peter and Nancy Lanza were separated in 2001 and divorced—eight long years later—in 2009. Adam was 20 when he shot his mother and then went to Sandy Hook Elementary and did the unthinkable.

In the interview Peter Lanza describes Adam in his early development as “just a normal little weird kid” but adds that his later diagnosis with Asperger’s syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism that was officially dropped from a list of diagnostic categories last year in favor of more generic terms, masked deeper, darker mental problems that were missed by doctors. Adam Lanza, according to the story, rejected and resented the Asperger’s diagnosis he received at age 13.

Reportedly, he spent his final two years largely alone, spending long hours despairing of existence in his bedroom, apparently clinically depressed, socially isolated and refusing to see his father despite his mother’s pleas. As with many kids on the autism spectrum, Lanza struggled with anxiety and depression, sensory-integration issues and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He became particularly fixated on mass murders.

There’s no evidence Adam Lanza was victimized in any purposeful way except through the pain of divorce. Many couples divorce. Many kids endure (Do they have a choice?) without becoming sinister. There are no born killers, nor a killing gene. Adam Lanza was in no way predestined to murder.

But one is left to ask “What if?” What if Adam Lanza had been taught from the cradle that he was fearfully and wonderfully crafted, emotional challenges and all, in God’s image? What if he’d had the benefit of a loving father in the home rather than estranged through the pain of divorce? Kids need both parents, especially kids like him. What if he had heard that there was hope beyond this life, which can seem relentless in its thorns and thistles?

A thousand “what ifs” could be posed, especially by those of us who have the power to influence people in our own sphere for God’s glory and purpose. We come bearing the only true, lasting peace.

Yes, Adam Lanza should have been born by virtue of the fact that he was conceived. But there was much more in his life that should have been. He chose to kill. He wasn’t predestined by God or biology to do it.

Gay marriage & religious freedom: a modest proposal

The efforts by several states to pass laws protecting the consciences of people with deeply held religious convictions against same-sex marriage have ignited a debate that has generated far more heat than light. Charges of state-sanctioned discrimination harkening back to the dark days of Jim Crow have been leveled at the proponents of such laws.

Such comparison to Jim Crow laws are not analogous. As The Christian Post’s Napp Nazworth deftly pointed out, Jim Crow laws were government-mandated discrimination based on race whereas the several state legislatures’ efforts merely sought to protect private citizens from being coerced by government mandate to violate their consciences.

So, what stance should early twenty-first century Christians advocate and support?

Perhaps we should begin by saying that homosexual activity between consenting adults should not be criminalized. As much as we may understand the desire of our Ugandan Christian brothers and sisters to protect their country from the moral excesses of the West, we should counsel them not to criminalize consensual homosexual activity. As our 16th-century Anabaptist forbearers testified, there should be spiritual penalties (in the church) for spiritual infractions and legal penalties (in the state) for legal infractions that harm others. Separation of church and state means among other things that the church should not use the coercive powers of the state to penalize consensual infractions it considers immoral. It also means that the state must not interfere with an individual church’s discipline of such behavior. Consequently, as a Baptist Christian I would oppose the Uganda laws there and here.

However, as a Baptist Christian, I continue to oppose changing God’s definition of marriage to include same-sex unions. Such a redefinition goes far beyond consensual behavior between adults in its social implications for society, including its impact on children. Even though it appears that the American public is increasingly coming to a different conclusion, does that mean that there are to be no legal protections for those people of faith whose religious convictions are, and will remain, at odds with the current cultural zeitgeist? Are such people (millions of American citizens who continue to hold the moral and sexual views that have dominated the Christian faith for two millennia), now to be coerced on pain of prison, fine, or going out of business to participate in ceremonies (often religious) that they find unconscionable?

Part of the problem in addressing this dilemma is a legal philosophy prominent in American jurisprudence today. This philosophy has been clearly articulated by Chai Feldblum, an Obama appointee to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. In her article, “Moral Conflict and Liberty: Gay Rights and Religion,” published in the Brooklyn Law Review, 2006 and Georgetown Law Faculty Publications, January 2010, Dr. Feldblum argues that in conflicts between the rights of the LGBT community and people of sincere religious conviction that “society should come down on the side of protecting the liberty of LGBT people.” She believes that in such conflicts it is a “zero-sum” game in which one side must surrender rights to the other.

She is in disagreement with the constitutional scholar Michael McConnell who argues that in such cases the goal should be to “extend respect to both sides … much as we treat atheism and faith as worthy of respect” and define such respect as “the civil toleration we extend to fellow citizens and fellow human beings even when we disagree with their views.” (Michael W. McConnell, “The Problem of Singling Out Religion,” 59 DePaul Law Review I, 44, 2000.)

I believe McConnell’s “respect” and “civil toleration” are far more noble goals than a “zero-sum” game where religious rights are always constricted.

How would such goals be achieved? I would propose no law allowing cafes, restaurants, bakeries, or photographers, etc. to refuse to serve the LGBT community if they offer their services to the public. On the other hand, there should be laws protecting them from being coerced to participate in same-sex wedding ceremonies. Surely, fair-minded people can see the difference between serving a couple in a restaurant or making them a cake and being forced to cater a same-sex wedding reception. There is a big difference between taking a couple’s photo and being coerced to attend the rehearsal, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and the wedding reception and contribute your artistic talent through photography to that which violates your conscience at the deepest levels. In the first cases you are serving the public. In the latter cases you are being coerced legally and economically into participating in a ceremony that violates your conscience.

The difference between serving gays and being forced to participate in a ceremony that tramples conscience is the very point that is most often missed in the heat of this debate.

It would be as if a bakery owned by a member of the LGBT community were coerced to cater a membership initiation ceremony at the odious and repugnant Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. It would be as if an orthodox Jewish butcher were required to cater a pork barbecue for the pig farmers of America. It would be as if the owner of an African-American restaurant was required to cater at an initiation ceremony for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and was required upon legal penalty to bake a cake with the Confederate “stars and bars” on it, a flag they believe symbolizes the subjugation and enslavement of their ancestors.

Surely, we can find a way to follow Dr. McConnell’s path of civil toleration that protects the deeply held convictions of American citizens from being coerced. It is not as if the LGBT community will have any difficulty finding Americans willing to provide any and all of these wedding services. Why would they want to coerce and trample the religious convictions and liberties of their fellow Americans? Such coercion will not lead to greater affirmation of same-sex marriage, only greater resentment, backlash, and incivility.

Surely, we can summon what President Lincoln called in his first inaugural address (March 4, 1861) “the better angels of our nature” to do better than that. May we all resolve to seek greater civility, toleration, and respect.

—Richard D. Land, a native Texan, is president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, N.C., and executive editor of The Christian Post, where this column first appeared.