Don Wildmon

AFA/AFR founder

July 2002 – A few weeks ago I read that a Christian man was sued because he would not rent a house to an unmarried couple. It was, he said, against his Christian beliefs to do so. He was immediately sued by the unmarried couple.

There is much said in today’s society about tolerance. It is extolled as a virtue of the highest order. One thing I have learned in the last 25 years is that those who preach tolerance the loudest are often the most intolerant people you will meet.

Take, for instance, the radical homosexual rights movement. All they want, they say, is tolerance. Yet that is precisely what they refuse to practice. They disrupt worship services. They have name-calling and hate-filled speech down to an art. But that is another story for another day.

What I want to say now is addressed to the Christian community – more specifically, the institutionalized Christian community. Consider the man who was sued because he acted on his Christian beliefs and refused to rent to the unmarried couple, and many others like him. These are the kind of people who support their local church and denomination. They give liberally, they assume positions of responsibility, they are faithful in their attendance. So what happens when they are sued for practicing their Christian faith? Does their denomination stand beside them, encourage them, support them? Does their denomination send an attorney to defend this member of theirs that is standing up for what he has been taught in his local church? Do they offer to give legal representation to keep their member from being ruined financially simply because he is sued?

I hope I am wrong, but I don’t know of a single denomination in America which provides free legal support for members who are sued because they practice their Christian faith, the faith their denomination has encouraged them to practice.

As my two-year-old grandson would say, “Something’s not right.” How is it that a member of a denomination, practicing the faith his denomination has encouraged, receives no legal help when he is sued for practicing that faith? How is it that the institutional church refuses to rise up and oppose such a law before it is ever enacted? Bow your head in shame, ye denominations. You fail to support one of your own, who is simply practicing what you taught him.

Did anyone from his denomination even call the Christian gentleman who was sued for refusing to rent to the unmarried couple? Did anyone from his local church even contact him to encourage him and offer to help him? I don’t know. But, if I were a wagering man, I would bet that the most he received was a word or two of encouragement from someone in his local church.

We can expect, in the future, to see more Christians sued as Christian values and morals become more politically incorrect. Will denominations gear up to help these members of theirs? That remains to be seen.

Let me suggest that you ask your local pastor, and especially your denominational officials, if they will come to your aid if you are sued for practicing your Christian faith.

I would be interested in knowing the response.