Religious Freedom a New Battle Line in America

The battle for religious freedom has become an important topic in the presidential race. On Tuesday, Donald Trump spoke out on behalf of Joe Kennedy, the high school football coach who was fired for praying after games.

This week, Westminster Theological Seminary in suburban Philadelphia is taking up the debate in a conference called "Faith in the Public Square."

"We are aware that the culture that we've been part of for so many years is beginning to move from being just a post-Christian culture to literally being an anti-Christian culture," Dr. Peter Lillback, president of Westminster, told CBN News.

Christian thinkers of different theological backgrounds and political views will gather at the seminary to discuss, among other topics, threats to religious freedom in a diverse society.

"We've heard that the Civil Rights Commission of the United States has declared that the traditional understanding of the First Amendment that protects conscience is no longer the way they're going to view it," Lillback said.

"They see a commitment to traditional marriage as an expression of hate speech; a belief that genders are divinely given as part of our personhood as some sort of opposition to the norms and standards of an enlightened culture," he continued.

"As we begin to see that taught and then applied in government policy, it's creating a whole new context in the American setting," he said.

Lillback told CBN News that Christians need to find better ways of communicating their values and engaging the culture.

"Students who have studied at seminaries through the past many years have been used to the thought that the Church was a value-added contribution to a community," Lillback said.

"But now what we're seeing is that those that hold a(n) historic Judeo-Christian worldview are viewed as somehow not worthy of being protected by First Amendment liberties, that they are perpetrators of prejudice and hostility," he continued.

"In a small way, this conference, 'Faith in the Public Square'... is trying to bring an inter-confessional dialogue together of those who care about these important ethical issues from our heritage," Lillback said.

"And find ways not only to talk to each other, but to think deeply, and hopefully, to create some better ways forward," he added.