This Christmas, Remember the Importance of Religious Freedom
Christmas has always been a special day for me. Growing up, it was a day set aside to spend time with family and loved ones. While I was raised as a Christian, Christ did not play a central role in my life – I was more interested in playing in the NBA. That all changed after I became a young cadet at West Point more than 40 years ago, when two upperclassmen invited me to a Bible study. That was the day my walk with Christ truly began. Since then, Christmas has come to mean something far greater to me: It’s not just a day for family time or opening presents; it is a day to celebrate the true miracle of a child being born to humble conditions in the small village of Bethlehem, over 2,000 years ago. It is a day to celebrate the coming of light to a dark world, one being swallowed up by an empire expanding its reach even as its lust for power and wealth grew. On Christmas, we remind ourselves of God’s living, abiding love for each one of us, and we honor that love by giving it freely to others.
My walk with Christ has shaped my life and given it purpose far beyond anything worldly ever could have. The centrality of my faith in God to everything I have been able to accomplish or that I cherish – from running small businesses in Kansas, to my work in Congress, the CIA, and the State Department, to my own family – is why religious freedom is so important to me. It is not about politics. It is about securing and protecting a fundamental, unalienable right. George Washington said in his Farewell Address that, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Given my own experience, I could not agree more.
That’s why it is so important that this Christmas season, we take a moment to consider the direction in which religious freedom is headed in the United States. In recent years, we have seen churches firebombed and synagogues attacked in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court ruling; antisemitic attacks rose in 2021 and continued their pace in 2022; places of worship across the United States were forced to close throughout the COVID pandemic; and recent legislation signed into law by the Biden Administration threatens to seriously undermine religious freedom.
There is hope, though. Champions of religious freedom won a huge victory earlier this year when a football coach’s right to pray on the field after games was upheld in the Supreme Court. The ACLJ filed an amicus brief in that important fight for Coach Kennedy’s freedoms. And there is another big case that the ACLJ has just appealed to the Supreme Court, defending the right to pray in public against those who claim to be “offended” and would see our faith stricken from public life. I hope the Supreme Court will take this case and rule in favor of prayer in the new year. We should never stop fighting to make sure religious freedom is secure in the United States.
We also should not forget those who are persecuted abroad. In Afghanistan, the Biden Administration’s failed withdrawal has meant the return of brutal persecution for Christians there. In China and North Korea, tens of millions of Christians are persecuted daily for their faith, not to mention the million-plus Uyghur Muslims suffering in Xi Jinping’s concentration camps in Xinjiang. We should pray for the millions of Ukrainian refugees, too, who will celebrate Christmas this year in other nations, far from home, while relatives and loved ones fight to defend their country against Putin’s brutal invasion. Say a prayer for these people. Pray that the Lord will deliver them goodwill and peace even at a time when there may seem to be little reason for hope or joy.
This Christmas season, I hope you will have time to reflect on the importance of faith and the incredible blessing we have to worship freely here in America. May God bless you and your families, and may you have a blessed holiday season.