In a YouTube video, an X post and his New York Times column, David French opines “Religious liberty is NOT in danger” (his emphasis) and “the legal protections for religious liberty are stronger than at any time in American history.”
This is a very big flip-flop from his opinion in 2015 when he published an article for National Review, “The Left’s Attack on Religious Liberty Could Break America,” writing:
Everyone who’s been paying attention knows the Left’s motivation and the Left’s endgame, where Christianity either changes or finds itself consigned to the outer darkness, occupying the same cultural and political space as white supremacists.
But in his recent post, French wrote:
It’s been 14 years since there has been a significant religious liberty loss at SCOTUS. Religious liberty is secure in the United States. The American Christian community is the most free, most powerful Christian community in the world.
Yes, there are some individual injustices, which are dealt with in courts, but American Christians are not “persecuted” by any meaningful historical standard.
French styles himself an evangelical who has “been relentlessly pushed to the periphery” of American evangelical Christianity. He says that as part of the “out-group,” he’s gained a new perspective on this and other issues.
It’s okay to change your mind. But is French correct? Is our religious freedom secure? Let’s look at what he says about this important topic and then look at some things he gets very wrong.
What French Believes About Our Religious Freedom
French says millions of evangelicals believe Christians in the U.S. are persecuted. He rightly argues American Christians – in general – aren’t being persecuted, not like those around the world who suffer martyrdom, imprisonment or forced displacement.
Instead, he believes that for most of American history, courts unconstitutionally “underenforced the establishment clause of the First Amendment,” allowing a “soft hegemony of American Protestantism.” But the Warren Court began dismantling this in the 1960s, French says, limiting “the power of the state to express a religious point of view.
Then, “state and local governments overcorrected,” violating “the free speech and free exercise clauses by taking aim at private religious expression.”
More recently, French believes the Supreme Court began “correcting the overcorrection,” and now we’ve reached a happy equilibrium.
He argues that “conservative evangelicals” simply want a return to “the old Protestant establishment,” while “secular Americans” seek “regulation of the church by the state, to push the church into conformance with a secular political ideology.”
“Then both sides tear into each other with an inexcusable level of fury and malice,” he writes, adding, “and one could fairly assert that Christians are persecuting their opponents.”
What French Gets Wrong
First, French’s Times article sets up a bogus strawman that he easily tears apart, asking, “Are Christians really persecuted in the United States of America?” He says no, and I agree.
But most Christians I know aren’t arguing that we are undergoing extreme persecution. So French flips to a different question that more Christians are asking, “Is religious liberty truly under threat in America?”
That’s the real question. And he gets it wrong. Christians are rightly wary of growing incursions on religious freedom.
He acknowledges that individual injustices have occurred, pointing to “stories of Christians under threat.” But he flips between the two questions as if they are the same, which is neither accurate nor helpful.
Second, French minimizes the shift in our country toward what he calls “secularism,” which sounds somewhat neutral, when there is very real hostility in many major institutions toward religion and people of faith – particularly those with conservative, Judeo-Christian beliefs.
That contempt toward faith is clear in the corporate media; in most of academia; in many corporations and unions; and in the myriad, well-funded non-profit and political groups seeking to “disrupt and dismantle” the family, sexuality, and virtually every major societal institution.
Many in the group he labels “progressives” or “secularists” are really on the far left, espousing Marxist ideology which pits “oppressed” groups against “privileged oppressors.” Many also tout totalitarian control of our freedoms. These leftists have successfully made the “long march through the institutions,” gaining great power and working to combat “the privileged,” which includes Christians of all stripes.
Think about how quickly these different movements have metastasized throughout our culture: Critical Race Theory, with its call for Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity (DIE); radical transgenderism, bent on “transitioning” children” and obliterating sex distinctions; the queer- and transgender- affirming Black Lives Matter, which works to “disrupt “Western nuclear family dynamics”; and violent anti-capitalist, anti-law Antifa groups.
Such groups teach children socio-political ideologies their religious parents strongly oppose, require adherence to their language and doctrines, intimidate people into compliance, and cancel and doxx those who disagree. And that doesn’t include the violence, destruction and fear they’ve spread in cities and towns across the country.
Third, French mischaracterizes and minimizes real concerns of Christians and families. He believes a Texas bill restricting sexualized and perverse drag performances for minors comes from “Christians attacking the fundamental freedoms of their opponents.”
When states and departments of education implement policies mandating teaching about LGBT individuals in social studies for all grades; required teaching graphic sex education that most parents oppose; and instructed schools to hide information from parents, then religious freedom, free speech, and parents’ rights to raise their children according to their beliefs and faith are indeed under assault.
He believes restricting children’s access to vulgar, violence-filled, sexually explicit materials is “Christian school board members” imposing “their own moral norms.”
French is mistaken. Good parents are simply protecting their children, as their faith teaches. Parents are rightfully fighting back, not attacking others’ freedoms.
Fourth, French ignores the way that nondiscrimination laws, education policies, court decisions and government agencies reinvented marriage, redefined sex, and elevated sexual identities to the same level as First Amendment Freedoms, leading directly to attacks on free speech and religious Freedom.
Finally, French believes the Supreme Court stands as a bulwark protecting religious freedom, but one election and one shift in the makeup of the Supreme Court could erode religious freedom even further. And, it shouldn’t take years and years of court battles, attacks on an individual’s livelihood and attorney’s fees and court costs to continue to maintain religious freedom.
There’s more we could say about religious freedom under fire, such as: forced church closings during COVID lockdowns; violent, profane and sexually explicit books in school libraries; the DOJ and FBI labeling parents “domestic terrorists”; cities and schools mandating the use of false pronouns and identities; attacks on churches and pregnancy resource centers; government agencies working with social media to shut down opposing opinions; and the rise in antisemitism and assaults on Jewish people.
Some Christians may have been overly aggressive in protecting their children, businesses, churches and religious freedom. Some. But by and large, threats to religious freedom are from the left. And anyone who’s paying attention knows those threats are growing.
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