Lathan Watts Christianity Is Under Attack Free Exercise Stop Fed Interference 100821

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For the best night's sleep in the whole wide world, visit MyPillow.com. Did you know you can do your tithing and love offering right from your computer? Visit www.chosengenerationradio.com to support Chosen Generation and make a tax-deductible donation. Now, back to Chosen Generation with Pastor Greg. And welcome back to Chosen Generation Radio where no topic is off limits, everything filtered through Biblical Glasses and my guest joining me from First Liberty Institute. And always excited to have him join me as we talk about what's happening to religious freedom here in America.

And I have to tell you, folks, yes, there is Christian persecution that is happening in our country today. And I want to welcome to the program Lathan Watts. Lathan, welcome. Good to have you, sir. Thank you.

Thanks for having me back. Absolutely, of course. Well, so, you know, I think perhaps that because obviously there's been so much indoctrination, we're going to talk with Cece O'Leary with the Southeastern Legal Foundation just about what's happening on our college campuses. And I think a lot of people are aware of it, but there's no question that there is a level of indoctrination that would lead one to believe that perhaps, you know, there really isn't any Christian persecution going on, and that Christianity is supposed to be something that you practice only in your home, only in the four walls of your house, and don't ever take it outside anywhere in public. And by all means, don't let it, you know, influence how you act, how you behave, and what you do, Lathan. I mean, that is the prevalent atmosphere that has found itself in a lot of our public squares. So that sounds to me like religious persecution. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

No, no, no. I was just going to say, I think over many, many years, due to some court decisions and just a misunderstanding, really, of the religion clauses and the First Amendment, we've gone so far out of our way trying not to violate the Establishment Clause that we have ended up basically violating the Free Exercise Clause or making it almost dormant. And it's, you know, it's based on a convoluted and misconstrued interpretation of the Establishment Clause. And the Establishment Clause was just intended so that there would be no official church of the United States of America. And that's really it.

Wait a minute. You mean the only reason they put that in there was so that the government wouldn't create a state-run church? Yeah, no, it's shocking, right? I mean, we had just finished winning a war with Great Britain, the greatest empire in the history of the world at that point. And they had the Church of England that you were attacked to support whether or not you ever darkened the door of the church, whether or not you believed anything that was being preached from those pulpits. And they didn't want that here. There would not be an official state-sponsored church of the federal government. Because we also have to remember, when they wrote the Constitution, it was only intended to apply to the federal government. At the time they ratified the Establishment Clause, the First Amendment, 12 out of the 13 states had official churches. Some of them had religious tests for office. You had to be a member of that church to hold public office, which is prevented in the federal government and the Constitution and Article 6. So it's not until after the Civil War and the Fourteenth Amendment and the Incorporation Doctrine, basically invented by the Supreme Court, that applied the Bill of Rights to the states. So we've gotten so we've gone so far out of our way on the Establishment Clause that it's been it's been broadened to the point where people think that there's just no role for religion in public life. And that's just not true.

I mean, it's just not accurate. It's certainly not what the founders intended. They knew that in order to remain free, you had to have a moral people. And that's the that is the role of religion in a free society is the the the teaching of and the encouragement of morality amongst the people. Because if you're if you have freedom without morality, there's nothing to restrain the fallen human nature of man and you will end up back in tyranny. The strong will press the weak, rich, oppressed, the poor, however you want to say it. At some point, the oppression gets bad enough that that those who are oppressed start crying out for a strong leader to come in and fix everything.

And pretty soon you're right back to a tyrant. So the the Establishment Clause was really just to prevent there being an official state church that everyone had to support. The Free Exercise Clause is about, as you were saying, living according to your faith in all aspects of life, not just choosing where you go to church on Sunday or if you go to church at all, but living out the religious beliefs that you have at school, at work, certainly in the home and how you interact with your fellow Americans. That's the role of religion in a free civil society. And that's why it has to be protected. That's why it's the only type of case that First Liberty handles is protecting religious liberty. Well, and also because, you know, we have a constitution.

Unfortunately, it has been significantly perverted in the last 50 years. But the original intent of our constitution was to restrain government, not people. The whole purpose of the nation that was created, our founders envisioned the freest nation on earth. But they understood, as you said so eloquently, that you can't have that level of freedom, that level of liberty, without an underlying foundation of morality that everyone clearly understands. And that morality is a part of the consciousness of every citizen.

As John Adams, that's why he made the statement, our constitution is fit only for a moral people. And I remind people all the time, Lathan, you want to talk about politicians being liars and crooks and thieves and all these horrific things. And I'm not suggesting that we haven't had a lot of that, nor that we don't experience that. We don't see those kinds of behaviors and activities, some of the things that are said and some of the things that are done and the bills that are put into place. But the reality is, is they are simply supposed to be a reflection of you and me, of everybody that's listening to the radio today, everybody hearing my voice, everybody watching me on TECN TV and Coast to Coast.

So folks, it's on us. If Washington DC doesn't reflect you and I, then it's our responsibility before God to put people there that are going to do exactly that. And first liberty is simply wanting to say, hey, everyone should be able to act according to that conscience that is associated with their belief system, belief in God.

Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, I think it's Will Rogers said that democracy is the idea that the American people deserve to get what they want, get it good and hard. So if you're concerned about these, as you said, liars and crooks and thieves and government, it's easy to point fingers, but we have to take responsibility ourselves. We're the people who keep electing them. And you know, law and politics are always downstream of the culture.

So if you turn your culture into an absolute sewer, what do you expect is going to rise to the top? You know, this is, I speak to a lot of churches and I tell them first liberty, you know, we win a lot of cases. We can protect religious liberty in the courts all day long. Our ministry is to protect your ministry. We can win these cases, but if you don't go out and impact the culture the way you're supposed to, eventually it's not going to matter. You know, that's what this is about, about protecting your right to then go out and be salt and light in your little corner of the world and make, you don't have to save the whole, you don't have to change the whole world.

Just change your corner of it. And citizenship is about that responsibility. I mean, you know, people come, I mean, that's why we have, there are a lot of these folks that are, that are, that are breaching our southern border that are coming. You know, everybody's not part of the cartels. Everybody's not part of a gang. Everybody, we know that.

We know that everybody's not bad. There are people that are coming, but the, but the main reason that folks stand in line and follow the legal process to become Americans is because of the ideals that they, that they believe about America and its freedoms and its liberties. And when they go through the citizen process, the citizen, to become a citizen of this country, they learn things for the most part, although there have been some changes in, in some of the years, but they learn for the most part things that a lot of Americans now are never taught in school, but used to be.

Oh, that's exactly right. You know, there's a, there's a big difference between, I mean, no one can fault anyone for wanting a better life or wanting a better life for their kids. There's a big difference between wanting to benefit from living in America and wanting to become an American. And that's the, that's the point that you're making about the people that do it the right way and go through the process. And I think we need to make that process easier, but the people who want to become citizens of this country, uh, reflect the, those ideals that the country is founded on.

And I think the notion of even the whole idea of citizenship has been denigrated, uh, you know, for decades now to the point where, you know, it's just, there's no difference between somebody being a resident and being a citizen. And, uh, that idea of citizenship, having value and having meaning and understanding what it is, um, that there are responsibilities that come along with being a citizen of this nation. Um, and maybe more than, than others because of the ideals that were founded upon. Um, and those, we, we have, yeah, we, we are here to live in freedom and that requires morality, like you said, and a certain respect for the rights of, of others and how we interact.

That's the only way we'll be able to maintain the level of freedom and prosperity that we have. Uh, like you mentioned, Adam saying that, you know, the constitution written for a moral people, uh, you know, Ronald Reagan talked about freedom being never more than one generation away from extinction. Um, but a couple of centuries before that, if you go back all the way back to one of the very first Congresses and they wrote the Northwest ordinance to, to, uh, authorize the settling of the Northwest territories, there's language in the Northwest ordinance that says, um, religion and morality being necessary for good government and the happiness of the people in system of public education will forever be encouraged. The founders idea of what education is supposed to be is creating the next generation of people capable of living in freedom.

It was about passing on those things to the next generation, but that then 200 years later, Reagan reminded us, we don't pass it on in the bloodstream. That is the, that's what the founders saw as the purpose of education. And you know, we've gotten so far afield of that today. It looks like, you know, our education system is doing just the opposite. Yeah.

Yeah. Teaching our kids to hate this country. Um, and I, I think you're finally seeing a backlash against that now, uh, people showing up school board meetings and, uh, speaking their mind and, and holding people accountable for some of the things that are being taught in schools today.

And it's going to take more of that. Well, and, and, and then you're seeing, you know, the, the response, uh, you know, uh, of, of an ideology that says, no, we're, we're going to shut down and indoctrinate, we're going to, we're going to force this anti-God anti-religion, uh, you know, state as, as God type of ideology that is completely and totally unconstitutional. And let's be clear. That's what we're talking about here. We're talking about the freedom, the free exercise there of, and, and the, uh, the limitations upon the government, because it has been determined also there's a case, and I'm trying to remember, you might remember the case, Lathan, but there's a case that said that secular humanism, which is in a sense, in essence, what the government is forcing upon us is in fact a religion that the courts found that it was.

Right. And the role of government, uh, towards religion is generally speaking, you know, kind of summarizing the case law is that government is supposed to be neutral towards religion and it shouldn't favor one over another or favor, you know, religion or non-religion, but it shouldn't dis-favor it either. So they have to, you know, protect sort of the, an open forum for, you know, debate and discussion of ideas.

And you can't just exclude religion from that forum. And, uh, you know, we've seen that, um, in, in several cases, uh, we have a case going to the United States Supreme court, um, about tuition program in Maine that the state had set up, um, for areas where there wasn't enough funds or people for, uh, for a high school that parents could use this scholarship to send their kids to other schools, unless they chose to send them to a religious school. And so, you know, we've, we've sued and now that case be heard by the Supreme court this term. Yeah. And, uh, and hopefully we'll, uh, we'll, we'll get the decision that, you know, it benefits all of us, which is the ability, uh, to be able to act freely. Uh, yeah. Secular humanism actually in a recent Oregon case, November 5th, 2014, a federal judge in Oregon, uh, judge answer Haggerty cited the establishment clause of the U S constitution in ruling that secular humanism was in fact a religion.

So if the government is forcing that on us, they're violating the constitution. Latham. Thank you folks.

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Trustednewspaper.com. Help the Epoch Times keep truth alive. Look I am for marriage between a man and a woman. I am for life from conception. I am for following the Bible and I believe that our founders started this nation on biblical principles.

I am in support of our military and believe that America should play a role in world security. I believe our constitution was intended for a moral people and that the Bible contains the only true moral code. I believe we are all born sinners and that God in His grace and mercy sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and that if we will confess our sins, He is just and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I believe salvation is not just accomplished in a little prayer, but that it is found in how that transformation is lived out. Jesus is to be the Lord of our lives and we should follow biblical precepts. This is not legalism or works, but a life lived out in love and honor towards the one who died for my sins. Faith without works is dead and is no faith at all. I believe that we will fall and that we need to have a repentant heart and that God will ultimately bring us into perfect action through Jesus Christ, spirit man perfected and soulish man in progress. I believe that we are not to live in guilt and shame when we fall, but we repent and get up and move closer to Jesus. I believe that if our nation will repent and turn from wickedness that God will heal our land.

I believe that as a Christian I must occupy until He comes and that to call evil wicked and to warn about those evil acts is a part of the mandated Christianity. That to love also means to be willing to take the risk necessary to confront a friend with the truth in hopes that their heart will be turned because their life matters, even if it means in that moment they will possibly hate me. It means that I must risk scorn to stand for truth and that I can never sit silently by while evil attempts to conquer the world. God is my everything and Jesus is the love of my life. That does not make me weak but strong, not silent but bold, and not fearful but courageous. Therefore, if you are my friend, while we may not fully agree, know that I share what I share because I care.

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You can support Chosen Generation and make a tax-deductible donation by visiting www.chosengenerationradio.com. And now, back to Chosen Generation with Pastor Greg. You know, folks, I tell you, the issue of Christianity, the issue of the role that Christianity has played in our history, I can't emphasize enough when I was listening to Lathan, I was jotting down some notes. When you think about what's being perpetrated on our kids today, what is it that they are being told, right?

They're being told that the United States is bad, that it was imperialistic, that the references of the 1619 project, references to slavery, references to America as an oppressor, as a colonizer, as imperialistic, all of those things. And yet, the contrast to that and the realities of it are... Hang on a moment. Hey IQ, hang on just a second. I'm closing out the segment right before.

Hang on just a second. So folks, the need for us to understand America's Christian and Biblical founding and to get that back into mainstream education, what it was that we came here to fight against. Was there an oppression in England? Was there freedom that people sought when they came here back in the times that they are referring to in 1619? Their focus is on Jamestown and slave trade that was actually coming from England. And let's remember that in total, it was only approximately 4% of the entire slave trade found its way into America.

And America determined to cut off slave trade and not allow any more slaves to be brought to our shores even before the Civil War was fought. So it's important to understand it was Christianity and Christians and Christendom that actually put an end to slavery. And it's been Christendom that has touched and changed lives all across this country.

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