Did you have an opportunity to attend a June 8th Religious Freedom Rally? Thought you might enjoy reading the speech I presented to hundreds of attendees in Lansing.
God is on the move in Michigan!!
ajh
STAND UP FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RALLY
June 8, 2012
Amy Hawkins
Good afternoon!
We are here TODAY to stand up for religious freedom but I would like to propose to you this question: what does the term religious really mean?
What if the term religion was, and is, meant to be synonymous with relationship but somehow that idea has been diluted. Today it often stands for a system or a structure. What if we have relied on a “system” and while doing so have been speaking one thing and living another and it is costing our nation greatly.
I think the truth has been staring us in the face and today we acknowledge it: God sent His Son for a relationship with us. And it’s that relationship between God and man and adoration and obedience from man to God that establishes true religious freedom. And in our case, it’s the required foundation on which to build, rule and preserve a free nation.
You and I are standing here today, instead of having this meeting in secret, or whispering at the water cooler, or privately and cautiously addressing our outrage to one another at the government’s attempt to regulate our conscious - because a few faithful men and women met persecution hundreds of years ago across the ocean and decided to do something about it.
The task before us is similar. While we are not being asked, like the Pilgrims, to cross an ocean in dangerous voyages, leaving everyone and everything behind, losing loved ones as they made the arduous journey and facing an unexplored world, we are being asked to embark upon on our own sort of uncharted - waters.
When has the life of faith been guaranteed to be safe, good and easy? Thankfully, we’ve been warned for centuries that if we chose the way of relationship with God, there would be moments of discomfort and adversity. And this is that moment for us here in America.
The government has this false idea that in order to make the world better, they need to implement their philosophy by creating yet another law. And they are wrong. Here is the good news, the government cannot regulate and does not threaten our relationship with God. They might tamper how we manifest that faith in our religious system but our true religious freedom is between God and man – because of a sacrifice Christ made 2 thousand years ago.
But we must acknowledge how the presence or absence of our relationship with God in the public conversation has impacted our nation.
When personal dismissals of God continue to duplicate among families, generations, peers and societal cultures, we must not be surprised when our nation has little direction, wisdom, or true prosperity. Our individual relationship with God is our own calibration to health, balance, perspective, and quality of life. Our individual healthiness benefits our country as a whole.
If individuals are living virtuous lives within God's guidelines, you have healthier families, who contribute to healthier work forces and healthier economies. If raised with consequences, balance and family structure, you have healthier children in schools more equipped to learn.
When abiding by Divine order, you have individual responsibility – which results in less need for big government; a desire to defend, preserve and pro-create life – which expands the number of participating citizens; a moral conscious when considering potential laws; and a commitment to honesty, integrity and kindness – which makes a society of humans better all the way around.
[PAUSE]
We must be honest with ourselves. The government did not encroach upon us over night. It’s been taking place for years. But where have we been as people of faith? Have we been assuming our freedoms, or preserving them?
The pilgrims wanted their freedom to worship God so badly that they completely re-arrange their lives so that they could be free in their lifetime, yet also lay a foundation for generations to come, to experience true religious liberty.
It was their relationship with God drove their success to obtain and preserve this freedom.
John Adams, 2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence, said: Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.
It’s not going to take one moment to change things… it will take atime, just as it did to arrive at Plymouth Rock. The threat to religious freedom is more than just one piece of public policy, and it goes beyond one Supreme Court decision or one significant election. We stand at a threshold. What’s happened has happened. But what will we do going forward?
It’s also not up to those who don’t live by religious principles to preserve a nation. It’s up to those who give allegiance to God. He has commissioned us to be caretakers of this earthly kingdom, to be in positions of authority that we can influence this culture with the truths of God.
SO… what do we do about it?
Learn more about groups like mine, Citizens for Traditional Values, Michigan Family Forum, Right to Life, American Family Association. Contact us to find out how to engage your church, what your pastors’ freedoms are for involvement, how to build church networks – and more! Google any of our groups, contact us and we will do our best to direct you.
Also, learn more about State Senator John Moolenaar’s Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection Act (more info online) and support his efforts.
You need to be encouraged. You are helping people like me in the government arena – make phone calls, provide rallying points and re-educating one another. And you are praying like never before for God’s mercy and Divine Intervention. You give me –as well as other cultural leaders- HOPE.
Especially as people of faith, we must make and keep our faith with God right and real; and we need to commit to engage in the culture deeper, farther, faster. We represent God and He has all the answers.
In closing, President George Washington, a man of deep faith said this: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
Our stand for religious liberty is a valiant stand. Our own relationship with and and obedience to God and the individual responsibility we embrace to preserve this nation before God is what will keep us free and our religious liberty the reason that makes our country great.