James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said a Republican (Trump) White House might restore some religious freedoms that had been taken from Christians over the years.
Dobson who is on Trump’s Evangelical Executive Advisory Board said a Trump presidency would likely remove the provisions of the Johnson amendment, which “would have a great impact on Washington because it would unleash Christian activists to fight for their beliefs,” Dobson said.
Dobson said Trump seemed sympathetic to his concerns as a Christian leader, and that Trump condemned the Johnson amendment, which placed limits on political activity and speech of church leaders. “That law plagues us to this day,” Dobson said. “Trump rightly condemned the legislation, which muzzled those of us who would otherwise use our influence to support our beliefs. He called that provision ‘unfair,’ and promised to overturn it if he is elected.”
Dobson also noted that in recent years there has been a “growing assault” on religious rights and liberty, including limits on reading the Bible, prayer and displays of the Ten Commandments in schools.
Removing the provisions of the Johnson amendment would inherently give churches more power and would tend toward uniting them with political parties. When that happens, it would likely lead to persecution of those who do not go along with the majority views of Christians.
He also expressed concern about the Obama administration that has switched from using the term “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship,” a strategic move that could limit what Christians do in the public square.
“In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the state, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are opening the door for the papacy to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives greater significance to this movement is the fact that the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance–a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority. It is the spirit of the papacy–the spirit of conformity to worldly customs, the veneration for human traditions above the commandments of God–that is permeating the Protestant churches and leading them on to do the same work of Sunday exaltation which the papacy has done before them.” The Great Controversy, page 573.
Source : Keep The Faith News, Pastor Hal Mayer
