The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #10: Can a church discriminate against gluttons?

I read an interesting article today from the best religious liberty magazine in the world. The article is about the tension between religious organizations that want to hire only people who adhere to their religious beliefs and government entities that want to prohibit discrimination.

Let’s make up a religion as an example of some of the issues mentioned in the article. This religion will be called Skin ’n’ Bones. Skin ’n’ Bones believes that gluttony is the most terrible sin and so this religion’s primary mission is to condemn and combat gluttony.

This church will say they should not be required to hire gluttons to work as officials at their church or to accept gluttons as members of their church. They may or may not allow gluttons to attend their church services depending on whether a particular congregation is orthodox Skin ’n’ Bones or liberal Skin ’n’ Bones.

In terms of hiring, I think this church is within its rights. They have a private religious organization and they can make whatever rules they want, unless they are deliberately harming people, like having human sacrifices or something…. Even a religion can’t have human sacrifices!

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What if the church wants to hire people to do some work on the property, carpenters maybe, or groundskeepers? Can they refuse to hire gluttons, or would that be unacceptable discrimination?

This is a little more complicated, but I think I would still let the church hire who they want without accusing them of illegal discrimination.

The article doesn’t go into the more complicated issue of private businesses owned by Skin ’n’ Bones members.

Suppose a Skin ’n’ Bones member starts a restaurant and refuses to serve gluttons or hire gluttons. Obviously, this would be really bad for business, but this member thinks it is wrong for him to participate in the sin of gluttony by serving gluttons at his restaurant or even hiring gluttons who will just use their pay to indulge in more gluttony.

NOW I think the government is right to step in and call this illegal discrimination.

To have a free country, that does not become a dictatorial theocracy, we have to distinguish between the religious sphere and the public sphere. In the religious sphere, organizations can treat people unequally and discriminate against people they don’t approve of. In the public sphere, organizations CANNOT treat people unequally and discriminate against people they disapprove of.

Churches are in the religious sphere and restaurants are in the public sphere and there need to be different rules for those two spheres. The religious sphere is always going to try to creep into the public sphere and the public sphere is always going to try to creep into the religious sphere, but we really need to keep them separate if we want to have a free society…. Which I do!

Within a church (in the religious sphere) people are allowed to prevent women from holding certain jobs, for example, because they believe women are supposed to be subordinate to men. But in a business (in the public sphere) you are not allowed to keep women subordinate to men, and prevent them from holding certain jobs just because they are women, because in our free society we believe that all people are created equal and need to be treated equally.

That’s what I believe anyway!

Here is a link to the article I mentioned above: https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/tightening-the-screws-on-religious-hiring

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Copyright © 2025 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #9: Is Identity Politics Good or Bad?

This morning I read a good article by David Remnick in The New Yorker. There were many thought-provoking paragraphs in the article – kind of what you would expect in an article by one of our great current events writers who is also the editor of one of the smartest magazines in the world….

One of the interesting and alarming paragraphs in this article was this one: “Shortly before the end of Obama’s second term, the President was in Lima, Peru, being driven to an event with some of his aides. Along the way, he confided that he’d just read an opinion column implying that, in electing Trump, tens of millions had rejected liberal identity politics. “What if we were wrong?” Obama said. “Maybe we pushed too far,” he went on, according to a memoir by one of his advisers, Benjamin Rhodes. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.” “

This made me think about “identity politics.” “Identity politics” is one of those things we hear people argue about and fight about and get angry about and yet, I almost never hear anybody explain what they MEAN by “identity politics.”

When I think about “identity politics” I am thinking about the process of looking at each group in our society SEPARATELY so we can see how they are doing. We do this to make sure that each group in our society, even groups we don’t belong to, and hardly ever think about, is sharing in the equality, and opportunity, and legal protections that EVERYBODY in America is supposed to have. To me that seems like a good thing to do….

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To see why that is a good thing to do let’s imagine a white American man in 1850. If we asked him, “Is America a free country?” he would probably say, “Of course America is a free country!”

But then we could ask him, “So the Indians are free?” (They didn’t say Native Americans back then….) He would have to admit that Native Americans were not free in 1850. In fact, they were being systematically driven off their ancestral lands by force, and those who resisted were killed….

And then we could ask him, “So the black people are free?” (I don’t know if they said “black people” back then. Maybe they used more scurrilous words that I don’t want to use now….) He would have to admit that black people were not free in 1850. In fact, millions of them were being bought and sold and OWNED as slaves….

And then we could ask him, “So women are free?” This one might shock him, but if he thought about it for a minute he would realize that women were not allowed to vote and had all sorts of legal restrictions on their activities that men did not have so no; in 1850 women were not free either.

After our conversation this man might say, “OK. So now I see that SOME people in America are free, but we still have a lot of work to do if we want EVERYBODY to be free and equal.” But this man never would have noticed the problem unless he looked at each group separately. If we want true freedom in a country, we have to make sure EVERBODY has it. And looking at each group separately to make sure they are free, is exactly what I mean by “identity politics.”

People who HATE identity politics… I don’t know what they mean by it. We will have to ask them….

I’ve seen lots of movies or TV shows where there is a car crash or some other kind of accident and someone will shout out, “Is everybody OK?” To me, identity politics is just how our society shouts out, “Is everybody OK?”

And that is a very good thing to do!

Here is a link to the article I mentioned above: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/18/it-can-happen-here

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Copyright © 2025 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #8: How much government power is too much?

Governments have to have SOME power, but not too MUCH power. A government with too little power cannot govern at all and so we don’t get the benefits a government is supposed to provide. A government with too much power can become tyrannical and infringe on the freedom of the people beyond what is proper and necessary to protect citizens and maintain an orderly society.

One of the endless struggles in the modern history of representative governments is to find the right balance between too little power and too much, between a government that is helpless and a government that is dangerous.

One of the attendees at the US Constitutional Convention in 1787 said the delegates gave the president strong powers, and sometimes not-well-defined powers, because they trusted George Washington, and they knew he was likely going to be the first president of the new country.

In a similar way, I think Americans should look around now, at the current crop of political leaders, and realize that it would be better for us to REDUCE presidential powers.

.

It is hard for me to understand why, but there was actually just a bill in the House to INCREASE the president’s power!

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HR 9495 would allow a president to take away a non-profit organization’s tax-exempt status if that organization “supports” terrorism. The problem with the bill is that it doesn’t require the government to tell an affected organization why the decision is being made or what the evidence is that supports the decision.

How could an organization defend itself against an accusation without knowing exactly what the accusation is?

Today this bill was blocked in the House. 204 Republicans voted for this bill and 1 voted against. 52 Democrats voted for this bill and 144 voted against.

Notice that 256 people voted for this bill and only 145 voted against, so, why was it blocked? Due to the rules of the House this particular bill needed a 2/3 vote of 270 to pass and it did not reach 270…. But it came close!

More than 130 tax-exempt organizations, including the ACLU opposed this bill and I think they were right. We shouldn’t want the government to be able to penalize people, or groups of people, or organizations, based on shady and secret accusations and without due process of law.

Sadly, a majority of House members DO want the government to have this power, so I’m afraid we might see some form of this bill revived.

One of the things that should make us suspicious of this bill is that it would give the government power to penalize organizations that are "supporting terrorism," but we should wonder: if the government believes a group is supporting terrorism, why aren’t they bringing criminal charges against it? It almost looks like the government wants power to harass organizations even if they don’t have evidence the organizations committed any crimes at all….

That kind of power would certainly make a great tool for a tyrant.

I believe we are in a time when presidential powers should be reduced and, yes, I did write about this years ago, when a Democrat was moving into the White House.

I am certainly happy this effort to increase presidential power has failed, at least for now. If we want to defend liberty, we should not give the government MORE powers, especially not UNECCESSARY powers, and most especially not SECRET unnecessary powers.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #7: Terminating the Constitution. Piece by Piece.

Trump is not even in office yet and he is already busily trying to terminate rules in the Constitution.

We sure were warned! Trump’s own Vice President four years ago said Trump tried to put himself above the Constitution. Trump’s own Chief of Staff and his Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman BOTH told us he was a fascist. In 2022 Trump himself said the rules of the Constitution should have been terminated to keep him in power after he lost the 2020 election.

Now Trump is at it again.

One of the rules in the Constitution is this one, from the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump doesn’t like this rule that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. He says he is going to end this Constitutional right with an executive order.

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Can presidents just eliminate Constitutional rights with executive orders? Can presidents just decide who is a citizen and who isn’t, regardless of what the Constitution says? I don’t think so! But Trump says he will do it anyway.

And that’s just the beginning.

Here is another rule in the Constitution: “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law….” Article 2, Section 2, Clause 2

This important clause puts a limit on presidential power by requiring him to get the “Advice and Consent” of the Senate for the appointment of high government officials.

There is an exception to this rule as follows: “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.” Article 2, Section 2, Clause 3

By reading the two clauses above we can see that the normal procedure is for the president to make appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate. If a vacancy occurs when the Senate is in recess the president can make temporary appointments without advice and consent.

Trump has now demanded that the Senate treat ALL of his appointments as recess appointments. This would simply terminate the Constitutional rule requiring the advice and consent of the Senate for presidential appointments and vastly increase the power of presidents to rule like autocrats.

So, Trump wanted to terminate the Constitutional rules that prevented him from staying in office after losing an election. Now he wants to terminate the Constitutional rule that everyone born in the United States is a citizen. Now he also wants to terminate the Constitutional rule that requires presidents to get the advice and consent of the Senate for high level appointments….

I wonder which Constitutional rules he will want to terminate next. Something in the Bill of Rights, maybe?

Let’s keep our eyes open!

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #6: Will Trump’s Administration Support Freedom in Ukraine?

I am sure Trump will give us plenty to worry about once he takes office, but in the meantime let’s keep our eyes and ears open for signs of what is coming.

During the campaign Trump promised that if he was elected, he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. That would happen even before he took office, he said. It hasn’t happened yet, which is actually a good thing because many people suspect Trump wants to let his hero Putin keep his conquests in Ukraine.

During the campaign Trump said the President of Ukraine was a great salesman for getting aid from the United States, which sure sounds like a hint that aid might stop once Trump is president.

Recently Don Jr. posted a video saying that Ukraine’s allowance is about to be cut off, which also sounds like there is a plan to cut off aid from that country which is currently fighting for its freedom against the Russian dictatorship.

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Our Enemies Will Vanish

One of Trump’s campaign advisers recently said that Ukraine will have to accept that the Crimea is gone, meaning Putin will get to keep this territory he invaded back in 2014.

Trump people say this adviser does not speak for the new administration, but they did not contradict his statement that the Crimea is gone, so maybe that campaign adviser speaks the truth.

I would like American presidents to support freedom around the world. Especially when a country like Ukraine is willing to do the fighting for itself if we just supply them with the tools they need to do the job.

If the new president will not support freedom in Ukraine, where else will he not support it?

We should be vigilant and pay attention to this issue.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #5: Floating Race Lines on Buses

If you only believe in freedom and rights for yourself, but not for other people, that is the same thing dictators believe. To really believe in freedom and rights you have to believe in freedom and rights for EVERYBODY.

If the government is leaving your group free, but threatening the rights of others, then, if you really believe in freedom, you have to stand up for those others. In a free country every group should be telling the government: “if you go after them, you are coming after us, and if you go after them, we are going to defend their rights the same way we would defend our own.”

I am reading this great book about the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in America. That was a time when most black people did not have freedom or rights, and most white people just ignored the problem. Especially in the Southern states.

This book explains how, for a long time after the Civil War it was a CRIME in many Southern states to teach black people to read. How is that not a dictatorship?

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Parting the Waters

This book also explains some about that whole “back of the bus” thing. White people were allowed to sit in the front of the bus, but black people had to sit at the back. But there also had to be separation between them. Drivers would create a “floating line” on the bus to separate white people from black people. As the bus filled up drivers might order a whole row of black people to stand up to make more room for one white person.

Black people couldn’t even walk through the white section of the bus. They had to pay for their tickets at the front and then walk around to the back to reboard the bus in their own section….

How could these black people have been treated so unjustly for so long? How could so many white people have not cared about that injustice for so long? How is that not a dictatorship?

If one person can be deprived of his or her rights without due process of Constitutional laws then no one is free. We all have to stand together and back each other up.

Make sure the laws are Constitutional and make sure the government is following the laws. That’s how we defend liberty and justice for all.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #4: The Danger of Christian Nationalism

This morning, I read an interesting article in the best religious freedom magazine in the world. This article is about a group called the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) which wants Christianity to dominate society.

The NAR got its start in 1989 when C. Peter Wagner, an expert on church growth, met Cindy Jacobs, who claimed to be a prophet who organized “prayer campaigns to dislodge high-level demons.”

This group believes that God is bringing back prophets and apostles to lead Christians in the modern world. Not surprisingly, Wagner soon decided that he must be one of the new apostles.

Up to this point, I would have no serious problem with this group. I may not agree with their ideas, but they don’t seem dangerous.

In 2001 they started to turn dangerous.

That year, the NAR adopted the Seven Mountain Mandate (7M) idea from Lance Wallnau. This idea is that Christians should aim to dominate all the major institutions of society which are defined as:
Religion,
Government,
Media,
Arts and Entertainment,
Education,
Family,
Business.

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The Violent Take it by Force

NOW I have a serious problem with this group. In a free country, no religion, and no other group, should “dominate” the major institutions of society. In a country that believes in freedom of religion, Christianity should not even dominate religion! Christians should live their lives, and other religious people should live their lives, and non-religious people should live their lives, and there should be no talk of any group dominating the others.

Naturally, the NAR has started working its way into politics. According to this article, one of Ted Cruz’s parents is a 7M proponent. Sarah Palin was mentored by an NAR prophet in Alaska. In 2015 the NAR became Trump supporters.

In 2020 various NAR leaders were involved in organizing or encouraging the events that developed into the attack on the Capitol. One NAR speaker in Washington DC on January 6, 2001 said, “We are going to rule and reign through Donald Trump and under the lordship of Jesus Christ.”

I think anyone who talks about ruling and reigning does not really understand the American system of government and is not a defender of freedom for all. These words are especially bizarre coming from a follower of the man who said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

For people who want to be free, the NAR is a dangerous group. Be vigilant!

You can read more about the NAR here: https://www.libertymagazine.org/article/americas-spiritual-warriors

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #3: How is the Biden Economy Doing in September 2024?

One of the most important weapons in the struggle to preserve liberty is TRUTH. Dictators lie all the time. People who know the truth are better able to protect their freedom than people who do not know the truth.

Dictators will tell you:

1. You have a huge problem or you are in terrible danger!
2. I am the only one who can save you!
3. I can only save you if you give me extraordinary powers like, maybe, suspending the rules of the Constitution, or giving me immunity so I can commit crimes in office!

Usually ALL of these claims are lies. But when the people in a country fall for this con job, they end up with a dictator.

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A wannabe dictator, for example, might tell you that when his opponents are in power the economy is terrible. When he is in power he will say his economy is the greatest economy the world has ever seen, even if it is really no better than it was before. Even if it is worse than it was before….

How can you tell if an economy is good or bad? Do a quick search online to find out what are considered good ranges for three of the most important economic numbers:

1. Change in Gross Domestic Product or GDP, which is a measure of economic growth. A good range for GDP growth is 2%-3%. (Personally, I would prefer 2.5% to 3.5%, but I am not a professional economist….)
2. Unemployment Rate. Generally, 3% to 5% is considered good.
3. Inflation Rate. The US target for inflation is to be close to 2% and to average 2% over time.

Yesterday I looked at GDP growth from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the 2nd quarter of 2024 GDP growth was 3.0%. That is in the good range. The advance number for the 3rd quarter of 2024 is 2.8%. Also in the good range.

Yesterday I looked at the unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In both September and October of 2024, the unemployment rate was at 4.1%. Those numbers are in the good range.

Yesterday I looked at the inflation rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In September of 2024, inflation was at 2.4%, which is pretty close to the ideal target of 2%.

Right now, economic growth, unemployment, and inflation, are all good in the United States. Right now the US economy is doing good.

If anyone tells you right now that the US economy is doing badly… they are lying to you.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #2: How to Defend Freedom

Trump is the president-elect. That is sad news for me, but it’s the truth.

And you know, one thing that makes me proud to be a Democrat is that Democrats accept the truth.

Kamala and Biden have already admitted that Trump won, and they have promised there will be a peaceful transfer of power.

Remember when Trump admitted he lost and promised a peaceful transfer of power in 2020? No! You don’t remember that. Because he never did that….

Kamala’s and Biden’s willingness to admit they lost, and their promise to support the peaceful transfer of power are two of the things that make them responsible and respectable adults.

Trump’s refusal to admit he lost in 2020, and his efforts to gum up the peaceful transfer of power that year are two of the things that make him a dangerous baby….

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Nevertheless, Trump is the president-elect. In the United States the people as a whole, through the Electoral College, decide who is president, and the people have chosen Trump.

We all have to accept that Trump will be the next president.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we have to roll over and let our liberties be taken away from us!

Millions of Americans believe the new president will be a danger to freedom in this country. If that is true, then we have the right to defend ourselves whether he was rightly elected or not. The right to vote for a president comes every four years. The right to defend our liberties comes every single minute of every single day.

Some ways we can defend our liberties are to:

1. Write social media posts, and share social media posts, and “like” social media posts that we agree with
2. Add comments to online articles to express our agreement or disagreement with what is said
3. Write letters to editors
4. Write to our elected representatives
5. Petition Congress for a redress of grievances
6. Boycott companies that support threats to our freedoms
7. Participate in peaceful protests
8. Donate money to Democratic candidates and to the National, State, and Local Democratic parties, or to groups like the ACLU that will fight for freedom
9. Go to court! Just like Trump used legal delaying tactics to keep himself out of prison, we have every right to use legal delaying tactics to defend our liberties
10. Go to our town or county political meetings and get involved in helping to find solutions to problems
11. As the next elections approach, donate as much time and money as we can to helping Democrats win back congressional seats in 2026 and to make sure the Whitehouse does not go to a "new" Trump in 2028

Most importantly:

• Learn the facts about the issues and prepare your arguments to combat misinformation and lies
• Tell the truth
• Use peaceful means
• Never give up!

Trump will be the next president. Now let’s keep our freedoms safe until he is gone!

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance #1: The ACLU Defends Freedom

The Sedition Act of 1918 “forbad the use of ‘disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language;’ about the United States Government….” This law appears to be a wildly unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech, but it was passed by Congress, signed into law by a President, and upheld by the Supreme Court.

That is how easy it is for freedom to die….

One person who was prosecuted under the Sedition Act was Eugene Debs, who was arrested for making an anti-war speech in Canton, Ohio. He was convicted of sedition and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1919. Ten years in prison for making a speech!

Fortunately, the Sedition Act was repealed by a new Congress in 1920. Eugene Debs was released from prison by a new president in 1921.

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That is how fast freedom can make a comeback….

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and its predecessor, the CLB, were started to fight against bad laws like the Sedition Act of 1918.

Today I started a recurring donation to the ACLU.

Just in case there are more threats to freedom coming….

You can find out more about The Sedition Act here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway