A series of articles, appearing in major newspapers and on various blogs, have decried “Project Blitz,” the name the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation has given to its package of model legislation for state legislators who are concerned about religious liberty issues. The attacks are largely gibberish, spinning the bogey man that the CPCF is trying to establish Christianity as the national religion and then enforce in this country rules and regulations for ancient Israel given in the Old Testament, a movement sometimes called “dominionism.” While, to some extent, the excesses of the attackers can be chalked up simply to their apparent failure to understand Christianity and what it teaches, all their excesses cannot be excused in that way.
The Project Blitz model legislation is carefully crafted to comply with current constitutional precedents concerning the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. Some of the model provisions counteract the attempt by “secularists” to remove from our history accurate explanations of the part that religion, and particularly Christianity and the Bible, played in the founding of our country. In acknowledging that unique, historical influence, it does not impose Christianity or the Bible on any person.
The model legislation of Project Blitz also recognizes that, in this country, we are seemingly long past the point at which a piece of legislation can be justified simply by a statement of belief such as, “The Bible says such action is wrong.” That is why none of the model legislation is supported by such statements, as the articles imply. For example, the proposed resolution that establishes a public policy in favor of sexual relations only between a married man and woman, while consistent with Biblical teaching, is supported not by Bible verses but by empirical studies that show the serious health and monetary damage resulting from other types of intimate sexual relations.
If they have read the Project Blitz model legislation materials as they appear to have, then its attackers know this, but they do not engage with this empirical evidence. Instead, ironically, they simply make “faith statements” of their own, such as, “Any belief that LGBTQ conduct is harmful to the individuals involved and to society at large is wrong and discriminatory.” This counter-belief system has become their religion, a belief system that rejects contrary evidence a priori. This leave them to rebut the secular evidence that Project Blitz puts forward, both historical and scientific, with only ad hominem, gross generalizations, misleading assertions, and pejoratives. Their belief-system emperor is not clothed with reason.
