This essay by @albertmohler is outstanding. An important truth therein: Unless there's a God, there's no intelligible ground for liberty as a basic good. Liberty assumes a particular telos. Remove God and all that's left of liberty is choice. https://t.co/Gpsf8ZJN0D
— Andrew T. Walker (@andrewtwalk) July 19, 2019
Andrew Walker is a faculty member at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the seminary headed by Albert the Pious, so it’s difficult to avoid a whiff of sucking-up here. But never mind; Mohler’s essay, and Walker’s rhapsodizing over the essay, are embarrassing in their own right.
It is simply ridiculous to complain that religious liberty is under assault; the complaint arises out of a failure of nuanced thinking. Has anybody, anywhere, infringed upon Mohler’s religious freedom? No. He remains free to be a Southern Baptist, to dress-up on Sunday morning and go to church, to insist without let that his children, neighbors, students, pew-mates, fellow educators are all no damn good and fit only for an eternal bonfire. Was he obliged to sneak past armed guards to deliver this speech, to hide his 3×5-cards in his suitcoat lining, to disguise his contraband Bible as a battered copy of Fifty Shades of Gray? He was not. One more thing: Are mimeographed copies of his speech being surreptitiously passed in alleyways from trembling hand to trembling hand? No. It is available on the Internet and widely publicized, as is the name of its author.
The problem, then? Why, non-ministerial and non-religious businesses operated by Christians must treat those people who do icky things with their whatsits just as if they have rights, too! Unthinkable!
Ho-hum. How is it even possible that so-called educators don’t know that this complaint was clubbed into the ground w-a-a-a-y back in the 60s, when such as Lester Maddox claimed a right to not serve blacks in his restaurants because they are descended from Ham, or maybe Cain?
Albert’s religious freedom is secure. But thanks to widespread public education, his religion is well- and widely-known to be utter and degrading nonsense — and it is dying a very public death. That’s the real complaint.