The Christ in Prophecy Journal

Christianity Under Attack: Litigation Bullies


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What happens when anti-Christian groups begin suing local governments, schools and businesses? Quite often the groups that are attacking Christians are really just bullies. When the Liberty Institute stands up to them, they back off because they don’t want to get involved in litigation.

I explored this topic with one of the foremost defenders of Christian freedoms in America today. His name is Kelly Shackelford and he’s the founder and director of the Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas. The Liberty Institute is the largest organization of lawyers in America today that is dedicated to the defense and advancement of Christian rights and freedoms. His response is below.

Kelly Shackleford

Litigation Bullies

One such anti-Christian organization is the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It sends out threatening letters to local governments and schools. The last 12 times that we’ve caught them sending out these letters we’ve come along and represented the city, or the county, or the school district. We’ve said, “This is not right. This is not the law. Let us represent you.” And, they accepted. So, we sent letters to this foundation proving that there was no basis for their lawsuits. All 12 times they have run away!

With anti-Christian groups like this, their methodology is a lot about intimidation. They attempt to see if they can get local governments to change and remove part of our religious heritage just out of fear, even when that is not what the law says.

If you’re a Christian unjustly being persecuted, the easiest way to reach the Liberty Institute is through our website at libertyinstitute.org. There is a lot of advice posted on our website that I tell people to read over.

Know what your rights are. Don’t know what are your rights in the public schools as a teacher or a student? Well, we have listed them on our website. What about your rights in the military? We’ve got a lot of military cases concerning religious freedom. There we list what your rights are in the military.

Churches and ministries that wish to protect themselves have become one of our biggest audiences. Download our materials and put some of our wording into the bylaws of your ministry. Unfortunately, very few people are aware that we offer this. Many churches and many ministries out there don’t have in their legal documents what they need to defend themselves.

There are going to be attacks against Christian organizations. I think everybody knows this. They’ve already started. We’ve already witnessed the situations where pastors refuse to marry two men or two women and all of a sudden a human rights prosecution is brought against them. They don’t have in their legal documents what they just assume everybody knows they believe.

We have on our website a document displaying a little picture of a church with sunlight coming out and it’s titled “Are you Protected?” Click that. Next select whether you’re a church, whether you’re a school, or whether you’re a non-profit ministry. Click that and you will be provided with the documents you need to look at and some sample language that others have used on different issues. It all really ties into the biblical approach. Then you can change the wording a little bit for your theology to make it fit in your organization. If you have that wording in your bylaws, then if you get sued, you can properly defend yourself.

Churches, as some point you are going to be sued. These anti-Christian groups are coming after you. That is clear. I think most people know the attacks have already started, and certainly will increase since the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. A lot of anti-Christian groups feel like they can use that ruling as a jumping off point against Christian organizations.

In the third segment of my interview of Kelly Shackelford on the subject of Christianity under attack, we’ll look to see if there’s any impact made on religious freedom from legalizing same-sex marriage.

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Dr. David Reagan

Dr. David Reagan is the Founder and Evangelist Emeritus of Lamb & Lion Ministries. He is a life-long Bible student, teacher, and preacher and he led over 45 pilgrimages to Israel. Dr. Reagan was the host of the radio then television program Christ in Prophecy for nearly 40 years.

3 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • Nathan,

    I just saw in the Prophecy Partner Report that your book on the Minor Prophets has been completed. I pray you find a publisher soon and I will order a copy when it comes out.

    I have a question for you. When I have been tasked to write a very important memo or report I sometimes will read the document many times over and make many revisions. Once I spent half a day and made what seemed like a hundred revisions to make my report as clear, precise and concise as possible. I finally had to force myself to stop and finish my report as is since my brain was going to explode if I spent another minute on it.

    My question to you (since I've never written a book and you have) is do you go through this when you write a book? How much time did you spend re-reading and editing and revising? Did it take more time to do that than to actually write it? And did you find it hard to stop the "finalizing" process and reach the point where you said the book is done?

    If you have the time to reply I would appreciate it as I would find your answer interesting.

  • Thanks, Billy! Yes, 12 Faith Journeys of the Minor Prophets (tentative title) is written and submitted. You get a signed copy free!

    What helped Steve and I in our writing process was that we had a review team that went chapter-by-chapter with us. Some were good idea men, some proofers, others editors. We also asked noted authors whom we interviewed on CiP and got their learned feedback. Their combined perspectives helped point out areas where we as the authors had become blind. Some chapters took 2-3 revisions before Steve and I agreed that we both liked what we saw.

    I agonized over the first chapter of Amos and rewrote it many times until it became less like a research paper and more like a book chapter. It was a huge learning process going from articles and research papers to books. That was my surprise, that writing books is a whole different creature.

    Hope this helps!

  • Wow, that is much more involved than I imagined. I think most people (myself included) assume writing a book is someone typing away for a long time, doing some edits and "viola". Your reply is an eye opener! Thanks.

    p.s. Waiting with anticipation for the book!

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