A Season for Justice: Defending the Rights of the Christian Home, Church and School

Reviewer's Bookwatch, August, 2004 by Proctor S. Burress

The limitations of the author's views are obvious. What may be less obvious is that some religious people seem bent on turning every courthouse, every stadium, every school, every government facility, even private work spaces, into a church. This "handbook" may well help. Some of his more cautious and carefully weighed thoughts may pass unnoticed. They are worth reading as they reveal some underlying conflicts felt by the author. There are signs here that if Americans don't grant this "right" to "share"... as a civil right ... religious people will opt out as many are doing.

Does "share" signal a strategy to make converts of the entire majority? Can a mere 8 percent of the population who are evangelicals accomplish this? Whatever the goals, there is no civil right that can protect us from stupidity whether it be from school administrators in Chelmsford , Massachusetts or town administrators in Georgetown, Kentucky.

There was a time when religious folk, the church, were fully in charge ... of everything. Do we wish to return to that Time ... the Middle Ages? Civil rights posed no problem. Sacred law was the measure, the only measure, for all matters.

Mr. French seems to carefully weigh these considerations in his argument especially as a minority religionist, but when push comes to shove, will he attempt to do more than just "share" his faith? Does he not understand there would be no church today, as we understand it, without the political power of a Constantine and others?

Just maybe, as the foundations of faith continue to quake, with faith-based emotion proving inadequate to cope with the modern age, the author will wish government had picked a faith for the state ... his!

The author may well be a master of arms in the "culture wars." The reader will find the subtext of this book is that the good and wise are not just being discriminated against but seriously persecuted. As those of his faith seem to portrayed as without blemish or rancor, only an invalid opposing "faith" of distorted origins can explain such negative treatment. It is just possible that more cases could be added to those discussed by the author here.

Unfortunately, as all members of his faith have not been uniformly kind, charitable and loving to others, the unkind feelings generated in others towards them will not abate. Was it not written, somewhere, that one should be mindful "... of the beam in one's own eye ..."? While all citizens should have recourse to the law, one might ask what marks authentic faith? Is government to protect all those "... persecuted for righteousness sake ..."? Does this stance reflect the early days of this faith?

One last comment. The author discusses the Middle School and homosexuality on pages 52-53. He hesitates to affirm the incident he cites is wide spread. He says ... without sharply delineating "secular"... the following, "Because the content of the program was 'secular,' it was legally acceptable for government officials to use government funds to promote behavior incompatible with evangelical Christianity."