To The Reader’s Forum:

“Religious freedom is expanding,” said an editorial by Lindsay Lloyd (1/1). He resides not in New York where Governor Hochul arbitrarily issued an indoor public mask edict on everyone under the threat of a $ 1,000 fine. That’s freedom contraction, not expansion.

His editorial cited a prominent Dallas pastor responding to the decline of Christianity and the rise of the “nones” who affiliate with no faith and the “dones” who are fininshed with the faith. The pastor said, “We all should be evolving…” “Evolving into what?” I ask. The pastor continued, “Those [‘dones’] and [‘nones’] are… helping religion evolve. That is healthy. ” Really, how so?

The pastor belongs to a mainline denomination on the verge of a split trying figure out who they are as one side takes Scripture at face value while the other side defaces it. Going to his church’s website, you see spiritual fence-straddling. The church gives a tepid endorsement of Scritpure, but embraces diversity and inclusion. So, does Scripture condition diversity and inclusion or vice versa?

The church he pastors seeks to make disciples of Jesus, but is also dedicated to social justice. I get disciple-making, but social justice is another matter, especially when it’s framed by Critical Race Theory. As someone has posted, “Envy was once considered to be 1 of the 7 deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name “social justice.”

On a television interview highlighting his program, “Project Unity and Together We Can” (which sounds good), he promotes a “lifestyle of anti-racism” (which sounds suspicious). It’s hard to tell if he’s advocating for racial reconciliation according to the Bible or adopting the cultish anti-racist lingo of cultural Marxism.

Biblical reconciliation brings resolution to discord and strife through the gospel of Jesus Christ offering forgiveness and redemption, whereas the cult of anti-racism sees the world through the Marxist lens of the oppressed against the oppressors in which reconciliation, absolution and redemption are rejected. Fomenting revolt to overthrow perceived “whiteness” for achieving power by whatever means is the anti-racist objective. Like the old adage goes, “If the law is on your side, pound the law; if the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if neither are on your side, pound the table.”

Modern anti-racism frowns at reconciliation. I really don’t know how much more evolving religiosity the pastor wants for anti-racist evolution, but the un-evolving gospel of Jesus Christ is the only option if hope, truth and grace matter.