There’s no mistaking the rising tide: government bureaucrats and activist judges are increasingly targeting faith-based organizations-testing, squeezing, and sometimes outright denying their religious freedom. In the name of regulation and fairness, foundational freedoms are chipped away bit by bit. If we, as people of faith and conscience, don’t stand firm and speak out, we may wake up to find our core convictions confined to the four walls of our churches, while those who serve and sacrifice outside are silenced or forced to violate their beliefs.
Recent headlines offer a sobering window into what’s at stake. The Supreme Court is set to hear a pivotal case out of New Jersey where First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a Christian pregnancy care ministry, faces a sweeping subpoena from the state attorney general demanding years of internal communications, donor lists, and all materials given to clients-nearly 5,000 donations’ worth of records (Reuters). The stated reason? Allegations that the center “resembles” an abortion clinic and might dissuade women from seeking abortions.
Never mind that First Choice offers parenting classes, free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, baby clothes, and crisis counseling-meeting real needs of mothers and babies (New Jersey Monitor). The signal sent to every faith-based nonprofit is chilling: government can rifle through your records if they dislike your biblical mission.
Targeting Faith’s Public Witness
This isn’t an isolated story. New York’s courts are again being forced by the Supreme Court to reconsider whether Catholic and Christian ministries should be compelled to pay for employee abortion coverage-even when their purpose is serving the vulnerable, not spreading doctrine (AP News). New York’s narrow “religious exemption” only protects those who mostly hire and serve their own flock. If your love leads you to serve the broader community, the law turns a blind eye to your convictions. Eric Baxter of the Becket Fund is right: “New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need.”
Even when faith-based organizations win-as Catholic Charities did recently in the Supreme Court regarding unfair tax burdens-the very fact these cases must reach the highest court signals a dangerous trend: religious liberty is treated as a nuisance, not as the cornerstone of America’s moral order (Reuters).
Redefining Charity-on Secular Terms
It’s not just life issues or health care at risk. New federal grant restrictions are effectively a loyalty test-demanding faith-based and pro-family nonprofits agree not to “promote gender ideology” or dissent from new definitions of marriage, family, or womanhood. Lawsuits are erupting as longstanding domestic violence organizations, many once founded by churches, must decide whether to compromise their biblical worldview or forfeit life-saving funding (AP News).
Even the most basic truths of biology and family-who is a man, who is a woman, what is marriage-are treated as bigoted if they flow from faith. The message is clear: faith may comfort you privately, but it must bend to every new orthodoxy the bureaucracy imposes.
The Path Forward: Courage and Clarity
For America’s faith-based organizations, the path is not easy, but it’s clear. We cannot retreat in fear or shrink our service to fit shifting government definitions of “acceptable faith.” Our children, neighbors, and nation are watching whether we stand for biblical compassion and moral clarity.
Parents, pastors, and leaders: pay attention. Today’s court fights aren’t just about arcane legal disputes; they determine whether we may raise our children in the light of God’s truth, offer care to women in need, or maintain ministries that serve the poor without compromise. If government is allowed to chip away at conscience rights or force groups to violate the sanctity of life, religious liberty becomes an empty slogan.
Our constitutional freedoms are only as strong as our willingness to defend them. Let’s remind our leaders: rights of conscience are non-negotiable. The solution is not to privatize faith but to boldly live it out-for the glory of God and the blessing of all.
