Faith & Justice: An Enemy of the State by Faith & Justice

Volume VII, Issue 2

AN ENEMY OF THE STATE Can a Christian run a business without violating his faith? The government says no.

Volume VII, Issue 2

CONTENTS

Anthony Hahn enjoys an easy camaraderie with longtime Conestoga employees like Rodney Franck and Scott Werley

Cover

4 LIVING FAITH IN A CHANGING AMERICA

Story:

“We speak in a way that understands that those who disagree with us are not our enemies.”

8 AN ENEMY OF THE STATE “It’s important for me to live every part of [my faith] wherever I go, whatever I do. Even here at work.” —Lemar Hahn—

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@AllianceDefends

www.AllianceDefendingFreedom.org

6 STANDING FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH ON AMERICA’S CAMPUSES “We’re getting people to talk—and that’s our goal.”

14 THEY BOW TO NO ONE IN DEFENDING PRAYER “They let us, as students, go first. People actually wanted to hear what we had to say.”

16 ALLIANCE PROFILE: NOEL STERETT “We understand law as a calling, and our Christian faith pretty much informs all that we do.”

Editor

Chuck Bolte

Alliance Defending Freedom

Senior Writer

[Phone] 800-835-5233

Alliance Defending Freedom would enjoy hearing your comments on the stories and issues discussed in Faith & Justice. Please direct comments/questions to www.AllianceDefendingFreedom.org, call 800-835-5233, or write: Editor, Faith & Justice, Alliance Defending Freedom, 15100 N. 90th Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85260.

[Fax] 480-444-0025

Doug Napier, Lauryn Porter, Chris Potts, Alan Sears

15100 N. 90th Street Scottsdale, AZ 85260

Chris Potts

Design Director/Photography Bruce Ellefson

Contributors Taylor Dalton, Rachel Fisk, Olivia Jensen,

G p h f a a

B c b s a c m a i

S f w m a

Y a g a m a

Minutes With Alan

Being Candid About Cameras by Alan Sears, President, CEO and General Counsel

I‘ve always been enthralled by history. I like to know, and cherish, the impact others have made.

Give me a free day and a museum, a battlefield, the preserved home of one of my heroes—and I’m about as happy as a man can be. Give me a great book about our faith, or Washington, or Eisenhower, and airport crowds and the confined space of the airplane cabin fade for awhile. But, of course, those kinds of days and diversions don’t come for me any more often than they come for you. In between are lots of days when I stand at the podium or sit at a microphone, talking to rooms full of people who are looking at, and listening to, me. It comes with my calling, and it’s an opportunity for me to do what this ministry is all about—enabling millions of Christians across this country to freely share their deepest beliefs in the public square. Still, standing and speaking for Christ, and religious freedom, is different from talking about ... me. Which is why, when the people on our communications team—the media, marketing and creative specialists—come to me about filming a “CEO video,” I start to squirm. Yes, it’s good to have something to show at banquets and events that will help people understand “Who is this guy?” charged with leading Alliance Defending Freedom, and “What makes him tick?” But there’s a reason this ministry has never been built around any one persona, and why we’ve never worked to make anyone on our

team a household name. ADF is about serving Jesus Christ and His people ... not building one person’s legacy or reputation. It helps to know I’m not the only one who enjoys biographies. Most of us find encouragement in seeing how others have faced their personal challenges and built on the unique opportunities God has given them. By His grace, He has blessed me with more than my share, and my experiences give me a distinct perspective on this ministry, and on what we are facing in the days ahead.

o, it’s time, they recently told me, for a new video. To make the medicine go down, our creative team came up with a spoonful of sugar. On my next working trip back east, they would steal a day to film me at some of my favorite places (the Supreme Court, Abe Lincoln’s summer home) and visiting with the courageous pastors and laity of the Bronx Household of Faith. I hope the results will remind you of the extraordinary heritage of religious freedom we have in this country, and of all that our Lord is enabling ADF to do to preserve that heritage. John 15:5–Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

Take a few moments and view this new video about Alan’s history and vision for the ministry. Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice.”

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On The Square

Living Faith In A Changing America Photo: The Christian Post/N.Nazworth

Q&A with

Dr. Russell Moore Russell D. Moore enjoys a unique vantage point for viewing the cultural conflicts of America today. Elected president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in 2013, he is the point man for the denomination’s public response to the nation’s moral concerns. He is also its foremost spokesman on public policies related to those issues, interacting with political leaders at the highest levels of government. A former provost and dean of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Moore also taught theology and ethics at the school, and has authored several books, including Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches and Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ. He and his wife, Maria, are the parents of five sons.

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What changes or developments in American culture are of greatest concern to you? I do not have a gloomy, pessimistic view of American culture. We see the secularizing of American culture in some ways, but I think what’s falling away is not authentic, genuine Christianity, but nominal, cultural Christianity. And it’s being replaced with a vibrant, counter cultural Christianity. The resurgence of apostolic Christianity, [particularly] among young people across this country, is extremely cheering to me. American culture is changing, in some ways for the worse, but Christianity didn’t emerge in Mayberry. It emerged in a very difficult place, where Christianity was seen to be freakish. And so, as the culture increasingly sees the Gospel as freakish, or even dangerous, in many ways that’s because they’re simply hearing what we have to say in a clear way. I often say that my perspective on the culture is summed up in the lyrics of the Grateful Dead song “Touch of Grey”: It’s even worse than it appears, but it’s alright. Meaning that we’re always going to have a difficult cultural ecosystem around us, because we live in a fallen world. But the Kingdom of God marches forward, and Jesus is ultimately triumphant.

C n h i l

n a

zworth

Religious liberty isn’t a grant from the state. It’s a natural right, given by God, that the state must recognize. You’ve been especially outspoken about the Conestoga Wood Specialties and the Hobby Lobby cases recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court (both of which have ties to Alliance Defending Freedom). What makes these cases so important?

Why do Christians need to be actively engaged with today’s political and cultural issues?

There are always going to be those who are tempted to evacuate the public sphere altogether—but I believe that’s impossible. There have been Christians on the Right and the Left who have replaced the Gospel with a political agenda—that has happened. But churches that simply don’t address social quesThe Hobby Lobby and Conestoga cases are critical for tions at all don’t avoid that problem. They typically become the Christians [and] non-Christians … including those who have most politicized churches of no faith at all. Christians all. A church in 1845 Georgia have fought long and hard that doesn’t address the quesin this country for religious tion of slavery is addressing liberty. This is a long-cherslavery … by baptizing the ished right, paid for with the status quo. And a church in blood of our forefathers and 2014 that doesn’t address foremothers, and we need abortion is standing for the to guard it, and we need to status quo of a culture that honor it. devalues the human life of We also need to recogthe unborn. nize that religious liberty So we must speak on isn’t a grant from the state. issues facing the culture— It’s a natural right, given by but we speak in a way that God, that the state must recDr. Russell Moore is a leading spokesman for Southern Baptists on political and cultural issues impacting people of faith. understands that those who ognize. So we need to stand disagree with us are not our vigilant there. enemies. The Bible says we don’t wrestle against flesh and What I would say to people of no religious faith is that reblood, but against principalities and powers “in heavenly placligious liberty is [also] in their best interest … because a goves”—which means that we speak with conviction, but also with ernment that is powerful enough to pave over the consciences kindness toward those who disagree with us. of religious believers is a government that will be able to pave over their consciences, as well. I don’t think any of us want the sort of world that would say people “trade in” their consciences and convictions when they go into the marketplace. If we say that to Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, then how are we going to be able to

Go to AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice” to learn about our most recent efforts to preserve your religious freedom, and visit www.russellmoore.com to glean additional insights from Dr. Moore. have any moral accountability for people acting in corporations? How will we be able to call on corporations to have a moral conscience when it comes to polluting the air and the water? So, it’s in everyone’s interest.

How do you see Alliance Defending Freedom contributing to these spiritual struggles? Alliance Defending Freedom is remarkably impressive to me, as a group of people with amazing legal skill and a well-formed heart for the right things … working not only in the legal arena, but also in cultivating churches and church leaders, to understand why religious freedom is important. There’s always a temptation for people to take religious liberty for granted, and ADF has been very effective in pointing out why we can’t do that, and in equipping churches to be able to prepare the next generation to fight for religious liberty.

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Special Feature

Standing For Freedom Of Speech On America’s Campuses Christian Andzel defends life—and speech—at the University of Buffalo.

hese days, students wondering how seriously their college or university officials take the First Amendment are finding it easy to determine the answer. They could ask permission or funding for any number of events or activities, but perhaps the most surefire test is something called the Genocide Awareness Project, or GAP.

I have no problem with protest … but I do have a problem with them infringing upon my freedom of speech. – Christian Andzel

GAP uses some graphic images to remind viewers of something most would rather forget: that abortion is the natural extension of a line of government-sanctioned brutality that runs back through human history, including (but not limited to) slavery and the Holocaust. Student pro-life groups, setting up the display along busy walkways and campus quads, are attracting a lot of attention for their cause—and a lot of censorship from campus administrators. “We’re getting people to talk—and that’s our goal,” says Angela Little, who was a senior at Eastern Michigan University when her chapter of Students for Life of America (SFLA) brought GAP to their campus. “By the time I’m 30, one in three women will have had an abortion. So, basically, everyone knows someone who’s had one.” Like other pro-life students on campuses coast to coast, presenting a

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of Buffalo.

Why is my voice being squelched? – Spencer Anderson

wide range of projects, events, debates, guest lectures, and protests, Angela says her group had just one goal: “to get people to say, ‘Is abortion okay?’” “Groups like SFLA are providing the ideas and resources for pro-life students to engage in effective pro-life advocacy on campus,” says David Hacker, Senior Legal Counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF assists groups like SFLA, he says, when they run into unconstitutional restrictions on speech. Events like GAP show just how widespread those restrictions really are.

Spencer Anderson was a student at Columbus State Community College when he saw an anti-abortion film, 180, that opened his eyes to how common abortion is among college students (more than half of all U.S. abortions involve women under 25). Spencer wondered if he could help change that. Through Facebook, he befriended other pro-lifers—and learned of GAP. He spent months trying to secure permission for the project from school officials. It finally came—with strict limits on how much of GAP could be shown, and where. Officials also brought in the police, and both hovered so much that Spencer wondered, “Why is my voice being squelched?” Angela’s SFLA group couldn’t even get past their own student government leaders, who denied funding for the GAP event, saying it was too “biased” and “controversial”—even though they‘d approved funding for plenty of controversial displays and events biased toward leftist views.

“I got mad,” Angela says. “I’ve paid hundreds of dollars in student fees every year, and never seen any of it go to a group I actually agree with. Just because they’re a big university doesn’t mean they’re always right. Sometimes, they need to be confronted.”

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice” to learn more about these students and what this ministry is doing to preserve First Amendment protections on campus.

At the University at Buffalo in New York, The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display is prompting discussions—and censorship. Christian Andzel and his SFLA group conhe says is “rooted in a campus culture fronted some 250 pro-abortion stuthat is hostile to Christian and conserdents who stormed their GAP presentavative students.” tion, overwhelming the pro-lifers and hanging umbrellas, shower curtains, ADF attorneys have successfully inand bedsheets over the pictures. Local terceded for thousands of students at police, brought in to keep order, simschools nationwide—including Chrisply stood by and watched. tian, Angela, and Spencer—restoring their right to speak thoughtfully “I have no problem with protest,” says about issues like abortion and share Christian, who says his passion on their faith in ways that may nudge this issue stems from being put up for their fellow students out of their comadoption as an infant in Columbia, by a fort zone. mother who might easily have aborted him. “Bring it on, and we’ll debate—but “Because of groups like SFLA, students I do have a problem with them infringtoday are more pro-life than the previing upon my [and my club’s] freedom ous generation,” Hacker says. “We’re of speech.” seeing many more young people respond positively to the pro-life issue Christian, Angela, Spencer, and their and want to go out and tell others.” pro-life groups soon joined the dozBy holding to their beliefs amid backens of students and organizations lash and controversy, he says, Angela, who each year enlist ADF attorneys to Spencer, and Christian are showing defend their rights, as protected by students facing similar censorship that the First Amendment. Hacker says the they, too, can stand for their right to three students’ experiences “represent speak freely—even against universities common threats to religious liberty and that demand their silence. free speech on campus,” a censorship Alliance Defending Freedom

You would think a family that’s spent a half-century making drawers and cabinets would know a little something about compartmentalizing. That is, after all, why people buy and install drawers and cabinets—so that they can tuck away things they’re not using … store them out of mind and out of sight. The Hahns understand that. They make their living carefully crafting oak and cherry, maple and pine creations so simple and beautiful that whatever may be stored within becomes almost an afterthought. They’re good enough at it that their business has grown, in 50 years, from a two-man operation to more than a thousand employees. Among their customers, they have a reputation for excellence. Within their community, they’re respected for their generosity. Their

— by Chris Potts —

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employees speak of the family’s kindness and compassion. The Hahns themselves speak little of any of these things; privacy is as fundamental to their character as faith is to their beliefs. But they are not ashamed of their convictions, or of how those convictions shape their daily life and work and environment. Their beliefs are personal, but they are not hidden away. In houses and offices, drawers and cabinets have their place. People like the Hahns, though, have no compartments in their hearts. They believe that if a man truly holds to his convictions, he must honor them as faithfully on the floor of his factory as he does at his own breakfast table.

Central America. Nearly 300 years ago, it brought a sizable number of them and their denominational cousins, the Quakers and Amish, to North America. There, many—including the Hahns’ own ancestors—put down roots in the newly-founded colony of Pennsylvania. What they found there, to a degree none of their kind had experienced anywhere else, was pure religious freedom … genuine tolerance for their beliefs and respect for their determination to live out that very personal faith in every aspect of their lives and communities.

But now the Hahns have come face-toface with the hard reality that people who don’t share their religious beliefs—and even some who do—look on faith like the things in their cabinets … as something to be tucked away, out of mind, and out of sight. It’s a view the federal government is now compelling the Hahns to share. But for people who have built their business as much on deep-seated belief as on finely crafted wood … the government’s demands go hard against the grain.

t is perhaps both easier, and harder, for the Hahns to understand what is happening in American legal culture today than it is for people of other faith backgrounds and persuasions, in other parts of the country. As Mennonites, they represent a 500-year-old history of struggling for the right to live out their beliefs. “Struggling”—not “fighting.” The Mennonites have always cherished peace, shunned war, and responded to the various political and cultural pressures inflicted upon them by moving on, in search of places more sheltered from the social storms. That search has dispersed them, through the centuries, across Europe and into Africa, India, and South and

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“I basically grew up with the company,” says Anthony, one of four sons born to Norman, each of whom took a turn working for the fledgling company. Anthony and his brothers Kevin and Lemar were the three who stayed with it—Kevin as a member of the board, Lemar as project engineer and chairman of the board, Anthony as president and CEO. “It’s all I really knew,” Anthony remembers. “We lived across the street, so it was part of our life.” Both of his parents worked for the company, whose offices were upstairs in the family home. An-

“They want to live the according to their f Now, for the first time in the government is telling the – RANDY WENGER Anthony Hahn touches base with Conestoga employees Kathy Mellinger (l) and Luther Sensenig (r).

Now, suddenly, after three centuries of peaceful coexistence with their fellow citizens in this vast, ever-changing country, they find themselves engulfed again by religious, political, and cultural pressures that may, once more, deny them the free expression of their personal faith.

he business that opened the Hahns’ lives to these intrusions, Conestoga Wood Specialties, first took shape in the family garage in 1964. Samuel gave himself to the handson work of creating doors, cabinets, and other furnishings, while his brother Norman focused on the books.

thony’s first job was mowing the factory lawn. Like his brothers, he in time learned the intricacies of saws, shapers, sanders, and other equipment. Eventually, he assumed management and office duties. Improved technology outpaced some of his early skills, but “I can still make a door,” he says, smiling. Lemar, who works in the engineering department, still makes a little of everything, but especially enjoys tinkering with adhesion—finding effective ways of melding wood pieces together. He finds something particularly rewarding, he says, in “just knowing that wood stays together by a substance, and our customers depend on that for safety

and a good appearance.” The substance that has held the Hahns together, he says, is their biblical beliefs. Lemar appreciates how faithfully his parents taught him to believe in Christ “early on in life,” and sent him to a school that reinforced Christian principles. “My faith is very important to me,” he says. “It’s important for me to live every part of it wherever I go, whatever I do. Even here at work.” “Our faith—that’s what we’re founded on,” Anthony says. “That’s what we were building our company on—those values,

gious faith,” says Randy Wenger, Chief Counsel with the nearby Independence Law Center, who knows the family as neighbors as well as clients. “The way they live out their faith in trying to serve others … to really be Christian light and truth, pervades everything, in terms of the way they run their business.” Wenger recalls encountering a group of Russian refugees working in the Lancaster plant—only one of whom, it turned out, understood any English. The Hahns had hired all of them, knowing the group would be able to make a better

he Department of Health and Human Services’ 2012 abortion pill mandate stunned Christian business owners across America, including the Hahns. The law dictates that all employers must underwrite, as part of their employees’ insurance benefits, lifeending abortion drugs. Those who decline to pay for their employees’ abortion pills risk fines of $100 dollars a day … per employee. Few businesses of any size can sustain a financial penalty of $36,500 a year, per employee. By refusing to grant them religious exemptions for the mandate, then, the government is, in fact, ordering business owners—whatever their personal views on the sanctity of human life—to actively support abortion, or risk crippling fines. “I’m really disappointed,” Lemar says. “We’re Christians. We don’t believe in taking life. And now … here we are.”

want to live their lives rding to their faith. he first time in 300 years, nt is telling them they can’t.”

“This is a moral concern for us,” Anthony says. “We actually have a sanctity of life statement that we put together that says we believe that life begins at the instant conception takes place. Nobody has a right to take that life except God. So we really don’t want to be in a business of providing drugs to our employees that could potentially cause abortion.”

RANDY WENGER –

those principles that we grew up with. It was our faith, our religion, to do business in a fair and ethical manner, and to treat our employees that way. ‘Treat other people the way you want them to treat you.’ That is in the Bible, and it’s played an important part in how we do business. And God has blessed this company.” Indeed. Conestoga is now one of the largest manufacturers in the county, with a reputation not only for employing outstanding craftsmen, but for paying them well and treating them fairly. “They’ve been trying to live their lives so thoroughly consistent with their reli-

wage working together, at the factory, where only one would have to speak the language. “I love the Hahns,” Wenger says. “Just the fact that they’re real people, in everything they do. They do good work, and they’ve got a lot of customers because they do good work. God has blessed them in their business, and they’re looking in every way that they can to build back into the Kingdom of God.” That same determination, though, now has the Hahns at odds with their own government … and every effort they’ve made to explain their actions and beliefs has been lost, so far, in translation.

But standing for that conviction puts the Hahns on the horns of another dilemma: confronting their own government. “Mennonites don’t go to court,” says Wenger, whose Independence Law Center was recruited by the family to defend them. “Here, they needed to go to court to be able to protect their rights.” Convincing the Hahns of that, he says, meant reaching “I wouldn’t say a comfort level, but an understanding, of what needed to be done. They want to be able to run their business, serve their clients and their employees in a way that honors God. So, ‘Okay, we need to go to court.’” “It was soul-wrenching,” Anthony says. “We’re nonresistant, peace-loving people. We’re not in the legal world, doing a lot of Alliance Defending Freedom

lawsuits and things. So that was really troubling … to stand up and make that stand. But we felt we needed to. We just did not want to go against what we believe.” “Norman Hahn was almost in tears, as he was speaking to us about the moral dilemma that this was creating for them,” says Wenger. “They want to live their lives according to their faith. Now, for the first time in 300 years, the government is telling them they can’t. Instead, they’re the enemy of the state, and the enemy of the government’s new policy.

Since the government got involved, though, Wenger says, “it’s much more difficult and much more expensive to be able to care for their employees in the way they want to. Instead, they’re being mandated now to do something that isn’t even preventing disease—it’s preventing, in all too many cases, a live human being—a new life—from growing and being born.” The family business would face $100,000 a day in fines if the Hahns refused to follow the mandate. Yet the thought of supplementing abortion was unbearable. In December 2012, they filed suit against their government in federal court.

hey lost. They appealed, and lost again. They appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit— and lost again. Wenger, an Alliance Defending Freedom Allied Attorney who had worked closely with the ministry in the earlier trials, realized the Hahns would need attorneys with solid Supreme Court experience if they were to file the only appeal left to them. Learning that ADF attorneys, representing other businesses, schools, and ministries, had won 18 of 19 court decisions blocking implementation of the HHS mandate, the family enlisted ADF to join their legal team.

“One of the judges said the choice for the Hahns in this case is either to bury their religious beliefs or bury their business.” – DAVID CORTMAN – “That just seems wrong, for the government to create enemies … when these are people who only want to serve. These are genuinely good people. And they only want to do good. [Yet they’re] being treated like they’re doing something bad to society.” In fact, Wenger says, the government that would punish the Hahns for not taking sufficient care of their employees is actually making it harder for them to do so. Prior to the Affordable Care Act, “the Hahns were providing outstanding insurance—all kinds of things that weren’t required by any law whatsoever; they were just concerned about their employees and their employees’ well-being. They didn’t need to be told by the government to do the right thing.”

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“The legal experience of Alliance Defending Freedom is amazing, and empowering,” Wenger says. “From the get-go, we were on the phone with ADF attorneys … and because of the alliance, we were able to move the case effectively. Then, in approaching the Supreme Court level, to be able to bring ADF in as counsel, has been instrumental, just in terms of their vast experience at this specialized level.” “We have a great legal team,” Anthony says. “I’m glad they’re supporting us, speaking for us—I’ve never had to speak in

the courtroom. But I can say, sitting there, listening … I literally can feel my hands getting sweaty, because it’s just such an important issue for us, as a family.” “One of the judges said the choice for the Hahns in this case is either to bury their religious beliefs or bury their business,” says ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman, “and certainly no one should have to make that choice. If the government can force the Hahns to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs just to engage in a livelihood … that sets a dangerous precedent. If the government can do that to them, it can certainly do much worse to others. “This isn’t a narrow issue about the HHS mandate,” he says. “The principles that are involved here are much broader than that, because they extend to all of our daily lives.” “Most people spend their lives trying to earn a living for their family,” says ADF Senior Legal Counsel Matt Bowman, “and if the federal government can declare that religious freedom doesn’t exist when you do business, or in healthcare, or in other areas of life, then the federal government is assuming a power to itself to take away our freedoms and to control what we’re doing. That’s incompatible with the First Amendment, and with the freedoms this country was founded to protect. “The question in this case is whether all Americans will have religious freedom, and be able to live and do business according to their faith, or whether the federal government can pick and choose what faith is … who are the faithful … and where and when they can exercise that faith.”

he Hahns’ case—in conjunction with that of another familyowned business, Hobby Lobby, owned by the Green family of Oklahoma— was argued at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 25. A decision in the case was expected in June. Essentially, Wenger says, the court will rule on whether family businesses “are protected by the religious liberty rights in our Constitution, and whether the owners of these corporations

“I literally can feel my hands getting sweaty, because it’s just such an important issue for us, as a family.” – ANTHONY HAHN – For the latest information on this case and an inspiring video of the Hahns’ story, visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and clicking on “Faith & Justice.” You’ll also learn more of our continuing efforts nationwide to defend the right of all Christians to live out their faith in their daily lives.

lose their constitutionally protected religious liberties when they open the doors for business.” After all, if you’re running a family business, “it’s not as if it’s some abstract entity out there that operates on its own,” Wenger says. “It’s operated by real people who stay awake at night worrying about how they’re going to pay the bills. We can make things in the Constitution ridiculously abstract, but at the end of the day, the court has to grapple with the fact that these are real people who have real convictions at stake.” If the court somehow decides that neither family companies nor their owners have any rights, Wenger says, “our religious liberty rights are going to mean less and less in the modern age, particularly as government seems to be getting more hostile toward religious beliefs. Morality is changing, and the kind of morality that’s being pushed by the government is changing. We’re going to have a lot more situations where religious freedom could be—and is being—burdened. So it’s critical that the court get this right.”

ne unfortunate side effect of suing the federal government— and having your case go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court—is that you attract a lot of attention to yourself. That can be good for your case, and good for your ego, if you happen to like the spotlight. The Hahns don’t. “As attorneys, we feel like it’s important for people to know what’s going on in these cases, because there’s a level of sympathy that people have when they understand the difficulty that this mandate causes in people’s lives,” Wenger says. “But we’re really limited in terms of media because [the Hahns] are not looking at getting attention for themselves—they just want to run a business, according to their faith. They would rather not be meeting with media at all.” Unfortunately, the higher the case has moved up the litigation ladder, the more media attention it’s received. For the Hahns, Wenger says, that attention has spurred not excitement, but “resignation, because they felt it was their duty … a way to maintain their religious liberties, and

help others. But I can tell you, they’d have been glad for someone else to take the lead on this.” “The Hahns are a great example,” Cortman says. “It’s an incredible testimony, when a family is brave enough to take on the difficulties of litigating a case, going against the administration, going to court all this time, fighting for their beliefs at great cost to themselves.” Looking back at all that, Anthony says, “There’s more at stake here than I realized. Allowing people to work hard, make a living, and grow their businesses—without having government intervening and causing issues and concerns. First Amendment rights. Religious liberty. Freedom. It just feels like they’re all being taken away. It’s very difficult, but … here we are.” “These people are the real deal,” Wenger says. “They’re not, as some might suggest, Christians who are just trying to get out from under the rules that everyone else has to follow. They love God, and the people around them … and just want to be able to continue to do that in freedom.”

Alliance Defending Freedom

My View

by Taylor Dalton, Rachel Fisk, Olivia Jensen, and Lauryn Porter

THEY BOW TO NO ONE IN DEFENDING PRAYER

“Some of our friends in the audience said people had tears in their eyes … but not everyone was enthusiastic.”

It was Lauryn’s idea. (She and Rachel are in junior high; Olivia and Taylor are in high school.) She had attended an earlier meeting of the board, and learned that the prayer issue would be discussed at the next session. She knew that each of us was at least a little interested in politics, and that all of us cared about the freedom to pray. So she contacted the rest of us, and suggested that we all go to the meet-

On January 28, the Governing Board of Gilbert

ing together, and that maybe each of us could prepare a little speech to give when they opened the floor for statements from the public. We got

(Arizona) Public Schools paused in the midst of its

together, talked about it, and agreed the issue was important enough to

lengthy evening’s agenda to invite public input on

make a stand. Maybe, we thought, it would be good for the adults to know

whether or not to begin opening its monthly busi-

that prayer was something young people cared about, too.

ness meetings with prayer. The crowd stirred to life when the first four citizens invited to the microphone

We went home, talked it over with our parents, and went to work on our

turned out to be teenagers. The four were friends

speeches. The night of the meeting, most of us gathered at Lauryn’s house,

of different ages, schools, and backgrounds, united

prayed together, and piled into her mom’s car for the ride to the meeting.

only by their involvement in the same local church,

Olivia had learned that the school board in a neighboring town had just

their participation in the same weekly book club, and

dealt with the same question. (Under pressure to stop opening their meetings

their shared conviction that the right of people to

with prayer, a board member had sought out advice from Alliance Defending

pray should be protected. One by one, they cleared

Freedom, whose attorneys helped the board members work out a policy that

their throats and stepped up to the mike.

conformed with the Constitution—and allowed them to keep praying at their meetings.) The fact that another school’s board had decided to continue

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E R

praying gave us hope that our board

is an important decision when it affects the

might reach a similar decision.

youth of our country.” Rachel was up next.

were speaking. Even one of the board mem-

“Praying isn’t something everybody believes

bers wiped at his eyes. When the meeting

The big room was still pretty full when

people had tears in their eyes while we

in,” she said, “but they can still listen and

closed, we congratulated each other. After

it came time for us to speak. Taylor, who

feel the peace others feel. Our Senate says

all of our own preparation, it had been fun

probably has the most experience talking

morning prayer before conducting their

to hear what we each had to say. Then sud-

in front of groups, went first. He some-

business. When any body of elected officials

denly, we were surrounded. People from

how managed to quote

all over the room kept

both Winston Churchill

coming up to tell us how

and Bruce Lee in his re-

much they appreciated

marks, while making his

what we had said.

point that: “I wish I’d had your elo“If we are truly loyal to our

quence when I was your

country, and honestly pledge

age,” one said. “Thanks

allegiance to it, then we

for being brave enough to

must recognize the stanza

speak up about this,” said

[of the Pledge] that states

another. But not everyone

that we are a nation ‘under

was enthusiastic. One

God.’… Even if you do not

woman accused Lauryn’s

believe, as the Founding Fa-

mother of forcing us to

thers did, that there is such a higher being, a prayer can be used as a moment to

(L.- r.) Olivia Jensen, Taylor Dalton, Lauryn Porter, and Rachel Fisk talk with ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey.

attend the meeting. “You told them what to say!” she said.

meditate and contemplate We were all kind of

the ideas and propositions about to be discussed. … I know that keep-

is making decisions for other people, they

shocked that someone would think we had

ing prayer in these meetings will impact

should pray for knowledge and guidance

to be there. Lauryn’s mom tried to explain

them for the better, thus helping to give us,

and more wisdom than they have.”

that we all chose to come—that this was actually important to us. We’re friends,

the rising generation, the chance to achieve Olivia came up last, and struck a patriotic

and this is what we believe. Some of us

note. “George Washington said, ‘It is im-

get teased a lot and verbally attacked for

“I just wanted to make sure that people

possible to rightly govern without God.’

our faith. It was great to have a chance

understood me—not just what I was say-

He believed that prayer in action allowed

to stand up in public and speak out for

higher educational goals.”

his ‘thoughts,

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice” to learn more about this ministry’s efforts nationwide to preserve religious freedom in the public square.

words, and work’

prayer and what we believe.

to be directed for

Two great things came out of that night.

good, which, in

First, the board voted to begin opening

settings such as

its meetings with prayer. And second, we

these, is crucial to

realized something: they let us, as stu-

ing, but what I meant,” Taylor says. “So I

success. Bringing prayer into these meet-

dents, go first. People actually wanted to

prayed for wisdom, that God would help

ings will demonstrate an appreciation and

hear what we had to say—just because

me get my point across in a way people

acceptance for all religious backgrounds.

we’re young.

would understand.” Lauryn was hoping the

This preservation of religious cultures and

same thing as she came up after him.

ideas, no matter what they may be, pro-

If we are virtually guaranteed a chance

“I am here because I have a strong desire

vides an atmosphere conducive to these

to speak, we decided—shouldn’t we do it

for prayer to be brought back to your school

school board meetings’ effectiveness.” Pray-

more often? Shouldn’t all young people of

board meetings,” she told the crowd. “You

ing is especially important, she told them,

faith take advantage of this opportunity,

guys have stewardship over many people

in “making decisions where the welfare of

every chance we get? We think so—and

and are making very big decisions every day.

children is involved.”

we’re all looking forward to the next

You should want God’s help for those important decisions … and to me every decision

Some of our friends in the audience said

chance we get to stand up, speak up, and make a difference.

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Alliance Profile F

or Noel Sterett, a partner with the Chicago law firm of Mauck & Baker, being a Christian attorney translates into … well, translating. “I saw law school as an opportunity to learn a new language,” he says, “and to use my language skills to serve others. Every day, I’m able to use language to persuade a judge, serve a client, write a contract. Each type of case is a new vocabulary … a new way of talking.” The language of intercession comes easily for Sterett, who—in addition to English, French, and sundry legal dialects—speaks the lingua franca of his firm: prayer. “At Mauck & Baker, prayer is a big part of everything— we pray for each other, for our clients, for the judges, for opposing counsel. We understand law as a calling, and our Christian faith pretty much informs all that we do,” he says. Like all of the other members of his firm, Sterett is an Alliance Defending Freedom Allied Attorney, and is “really involved in the kinds of cases ADF pursues”—as evidenced, most recently, by his work on behalf of The Life Center (TLC) of Elgin, Illinois. TLC provides young women with easy access to free pregnancy screening and ultrasounds. The ministry’s mobile pregnancy center regularly parks near local high schools, where teens too frightened to visit a hospital, doctor’s office, or even TLC’s main facility can come aboard quickly, quietly, and anonymously for diagnosis and counseling.

Noel Sterett

Mauck & Baker, LLC

Visit AllianceDefendingFreedom.org and click on “Faith & Justice” to see how ADF is protecting land use for organizations like The Life Center. To learn more about the work of Mauck & Baker, visit www. mauckbaker.com 16

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In 2013, the Elgin City Council suddenly decided to amend the community’s land ordinances, sharply curtailing the issuance of temporary land use permits. TLC staffers found themselves charged nearly $200 every time they parked their mobile clinic—and greatly limited in how often they could park in one place. The costs made it prohibitive for the clinics to operate, and difficult for potential clients to know where the clinics would be. Sterett’s firm filed suit on TLC’s behalf, a judge ruled in the center’s favor, and on February 26, the city council passed an amendment allowing the mobile clinic to operate as before. Sterett counted his work on the case among the more than 5,000 pro bono hours he’s logged as an Allied Attorney (two-and-a-half-years of work, valued at nearly $1 million)—and an opportunity “to live out my faith in a broken world where injustice is prevalent, and there are hurting people.”

On App rule not wor City cen firs

On Cou men Will pho who Mex sion crea bra cere The ruli the dec last nou high sco men

Updates

In The News Vol. II, Iss. 2

On April 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled 2-1 that churches cannot continue to hold weekend worship services in New York City’s public schools. The case centers on the litigation that first started in 1995 when Bronx

POINT AND SHOOT

HOUSE OF HOPE

Household of Faith, a small, inner-city congregation, challenged a city-wide prohibition on community groups using empty public schools to conduct worship services. The legal to-and-fro surrounding Bronx Household has ranged through every level of the federal courts, as Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys work to secure equal access to public buildings not only for that congregation, but for other churches and faith groups as well. Despite the adverse ruling, Bronx Household and dozens of other churches are still able to continue meeting in public schools while the case is on appeal.

Vol. II, Iss. 1

On April 7, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in Elane Photography v. Willock, the case of a Christian photographer, Elaine Huguenin, who was penalized by the New Mexico Human Rights Commission for declining to use her creative talents to help “celebrate” a same-sex “commitment ceremony.” (See Opinion, p. 18). The New Mexico Supreme Court ruling last summer, affirming the Human Rights Commission’s decision, remains for now, the last word on the case. The ominous implications of the state high court’s ruling were underscored by a concurring statement, issued by one of the jus-

tices, saying that being forced to contribute her creativity to activities she doesn’t believe in is “the price of citizenship” in America today. That issue will continue to be challenged in several other cases currently being defended by Alliance Defending Freedom.

A VICTORY FOR PUBLIC PRAYER O

n May 5, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the town of Greece, New York, affirming the constitutionally protected right of local officials to open civic meetings with voluntary prayers led by local citizens. Americans United for Separation of Church and State had filed suit against the town on behalf of two local residents who objected to the community’s prayer tradition. In a bizarre opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit had earlier ruled that, because Greece is populated mainly by Christians, it might need to import non-Christians from outside the town to lead non-Christian prayers—so that those who believe differently won’t “feel like outsiders.” Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys have represented Greece officials since the case began in 2008 (“The Problem With Prayer In Greece, NY,” Volume VII, Issue 1), arguing that there is strong legal and historical precedent for allowing deliberative bodies to invoke the blessings of the Almighty on their work, with the U.S. Supreme Court itself affirming that right in Marsh v. Chambers (1983). “Opening public meetings with prayer is a cherished freedom that the authors of the Constitution themselves practiced,” says ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “Speech censors should have no power to silence volunteers who pray for their communities just as the Founders did.”

Alliance Defending Freedom

Opinion

Doug Napier

The Price Of Citizenship “If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saintly. But since we see that abhorrence, anger, pride, and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice, and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little—even at the risk of being heroes.” —Sir Thomas More, A Man For All Seasons

It’s been nearly a decade since Jon and Elaine Huguenin left home and family to make their life in the West. They moved to Albuquerque and opened a photography business, specializing in weddings. Jon handled the finances, Elaine was the artist—and was good enough at it to make her reputation, in just a few years, as one of the best in the city. Hers, people saw, was much more than just a professional grasp of light and focus and composition. She had … the gift. One day, she opened an email from a woman asking if she‘d be willing to use her photographic artistry to “celebrate” a same-sex “commitment ceremony.” Elaine said no. She didn’t make ugly comments. She didn’t outline the biblical doctrines that motivate her beliefs. She didn’t question the morality of people whose beliefs differed from her own. She simply clarified what she did shoot— “traditional weddings, engagements, seniors”—and thanked the woman for her interest. Soon after, the Huguenins learned that the state was investigating their company for sexual orientation discrimination. In 2008, the New Mexico Human Rights

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Commission found their company guilty, ordering them to pay nearly $7,000 in attorneys’ fees. Three other courts approved that verdict before the U.S. Supreme Court, this spring, declined to hear her case. Across these eight tumultuous years, the Huguenins have suffered in many ways—all because Elaine politely declined to use her artistic talents to “celebrate” and commemorate something she doesn’t believe in, but to which lots of other local photographers would have happily contributed their artistry. And make no mistake—it wasn’t her camera, but her creative talents that the lesbian couple who contacted Elaine wanted to enlist. They weren’t asking her to adjust a lens and push a button, but to invest a part of her heart and soul in something that violates her conscience, and her deepest biblical convictions of right and wrong. Elaine is a Christian. She understands that marriage and its ceremonies should reflect the teachings of the Bible, which says God ordained marriage as the union of a man and a woman. That understanding is not tangential to her art—it is the essence of it.

A great photographer uses her imagination, her informed observations, her personal understanding to capture not only a scene, or a moment … but the life within that moment. Its meaning, its themes, its true character. That’s why any great photograph is as much a window into the soul of the pho-

tographer as it is into those people preserved in the picture. In trying to force Elaine to take their pictures, the couple was asking her to sacrifice the very elements that made her talents so uniquely attractive to them. In suing her, they penalized her for being what they wanted in the first place. And now, the courts of America are allowing them to do this: to tinker with the soul of an artist, in the hopes of bringing that same art out of a very different soul. In an opinion supporting the ruling of the New Mexico Supreme Court against Elaine, one of that court’s justices said that giving up the right to live according to one’s conscience and religious beliefs is “the price of citizenship” in America today. The price is going up. To secure Christians’ endorsement of their choices, those pressing the new social agenda are willing to suppress human dignity, rewrite the Constitution, erase religious liberty, and close down our businesses. In time, if we persist in resisting, even these will not be enough. On the other hand, if we yield … the price will continue to rise. Accommodation, like freedom, never comes cheap. Which is why we must stand fast—and, like the Huguenins, risk being heroes. Doug Napier is Senior Counsel, Executive Vice President, and Chief Alliance Officer for Alliance Defending Freedom.

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TODAY’S PLAN TOMORROW’S PROMISE

“Knowing the God-honoring values and integrity of the leadership at Alliance Defending Freedom, we are confident that they will be excellent stewards of our God-given resources.” —Laura and Neville V.

Pass on a legacy of freedom. Please contact Lisa Reschetnikow at 800-835-5233 or LisaR@AllianceDefendingFreedom.org to discuss your legacy giving.