As some of you are aware, my family and I go to Memphis, TN every year around the first of May. We go there to participate with a ministry called “Banners Unfurled”, a street preaching ministry headed up by Ken Lansing. Brother Lansing has been ministering on Beale Street (the midwest’s version of Bourbon Street) for over two decades.

Every year he organizes the “Beale Street Blast”, a three day meeting of public ministers from all over the country. One of the unique things about Bro. Lansing is his use of banners. The banners are about six feet by four feet and are suspended on poles. These banners have pictures and verses that give clear messages of Scripture truth.

A few years back, Ken had some legal issues with the city of Memphis concerning the banners. By the grace of God, he met a Christian attorney by the name of Nate Kellum. Brother Kellum now has a ministry called Center for Religious Expression, where he can defend religious freedom. He won the case for Ken and as a result we have incredible freedom and support from the city of Memphis when we march down Beale Street with our banners raised high!

I said all that so that you would have an idea of who Brother Kellum is and what he does. I am posting part of an article that he sent out October 27 of this year because of its relevance to all Christians. I think it’s something to consider in light of the up coming election.

“Noting this tension between religious freedom and the culture, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights − a bipartisan group comprising of eight selected commissioners − looked into this issue over the last three years, and recently came out with a report on their findings.

The results of the report are chilling. Essentially, the Commission concludes that religious freedom is antiquated and should no longer exist.

The Commission described their 306-page document as one intended to “reconcile the conflict which…may exist between those seeking to practice religious faith and those seeking compliance with or protection of nondiscrimination laws and policies.” Called the “Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties,” the Commission identified the Supreme Court decision of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez as its premise, a case compelling Christian organizations on a college campus to recognize any voting member or leader regardless of their views. And from this premise, the Commission drew some harrowing inferences.

The report calls for the elimination of exemptions and accommodations for religious convictions, reckoning that religious liberty “significantly infringes” on the civil rights of those claiming protections on the basis of “race, color, national origin, sex, disability status, sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Commission chairman, Martin Castro, offered that time-honored, constitutionally-backed guarantees, like “religious liberty” and “religious freedom,” are nothing more than code words for “discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia…and Christian supremacy.” Another commissioner, Gail Heriot, added: “People of faith should not allow themselves to become just another special interest that needs to be appeased.”

In other words, any minority group’s beliefs should be tolerated, but Christians do not enjoy the same freedom. The irony, of course, is that it is the Christians in this politically-correct world who are subject to discrimination and intolerance.

Thankfully, the report was not unanimous. Two of the commissioners dissented, with Commissioner Peter Kirsanow observing: “This debate will likely dominate civil-rights discourse for at least a generation. And regardless of the outcome, we may emerge a very different country than the one we have been.”