Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gave a speech the other day at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It wasn’t the kind of speech you might hear from a governor. Most likely a governor would be talking about taxes, spending, or education. The governor instead blasted the “silent war” on religion.
He certainly can speak on religion. He converted from Hinduism to Christianity. The last time I interviewed him, we talked about his involvement with Campus Crusade for Christ when he was in college. It’s just that you aren’t used to hearing candidates or elected officials talking about religious liberty. That is a sign that they understand what is at stake in our world.
He said that silent war “is waged in our courts and in the halls of political power. It is pursued with grim and relentless determination by a group of like-minded elites, determined to transform the country from a land sustained by faith into a land where faith is silenced, privatized, and circumscribed.”
He reminded the audience that Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, but the universal right of all God’s children.” Jindal added that Reagan “was reaffirming the most basic contention of the American founding, set forth in the Declaration of Independence, that we are a nation constituted in accordance with the ‘Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,’ and that we are a people ‘endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.'”
To illustrate his concern, he pointed to the upcoming court case involving the craft store Hobby Lobby and even defended “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson. He even quoted from President Obama who at the National Prayer Breakfast said, “that nations that uphold the rights of their people—including the freedom of religion—are ultimately more just and more peaceful and more successful.” He ended by telling the president that his new line should be: “if you like your religion, you can keep your religion.”
I agree with Governor Jindal that religious liberty should be a major issue in the next few elections.