Luke Goodrich - Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America

Praise for

Free to Believe

Religious freedom is one of the most important civil rights issues of our time, and Luke Goodrich is at the forefront of the battle. If you want to understand religious freedom and how to protect it, you need this book.

E RIC M ETAXAS , New York Times number one best-selling author of Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, and If You Can Keep It

Religious liberty is too important to be just another culture war skirmish. If the soul is not free, every other freedom is in jeopardy. We live in a time when religious freedom is rarely discussed without either alarmism or dismissal. Luke Goodrich is one of the nations most respected thought leaders in the arena of liberty of conscience. In this book he reframes our context, connecting us with generations past and prognosticating on the challenges of the future. I hope many people, both religious and secular, will read this volume and recommit to a society where all consciences are free to believe, to worship, to serve, and to live.

R USSELL M OORE , president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

With the religious freedoms that Americans have long taken for granted now under fierce attack, Luke Goodrich not only sounds an alarm about the challenges ahead but also offers practical guidance on how to confront them. This wise, faith-filled, and eminently readable book should be in the hands of everyone who values religious liberty.

M ARY A NN G LENDON , Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and author of A World Made New

Today more than ever, thoughtful citizens need a clear, credible, and intelligible text that makes the case for preserving the precious gift of religious liberty. In Free to Believe Luke Goodrich provides this much-needed narrative.

M OST R EVEREND J OSEPH E. K URTZ , DD, archbishop of Louisville and former president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The first time I heard Luke Goodrich speak about religious freedom, I realized he was inviting me into a conversation I had never had before. Lukes teachings on religious freedom are based not on fear, tradition, or partisanship but on Jesus. He has opened my eyes, as a pastor, to the reality that religious liberty is not something invented by our US Constitution but is deeply embedded in the Bible, the gospel of Jesus, and the heart of God. Pastors, this book is a gift to us! Its a remarkable tool that helps us reimagine for ourselves and our congregations what it means to respond to the religious liberty conversation through the lens of the gospel.

K YLE C OSTELLO , lead pastor of Mariners Church Huntington Beach

As a journalist who writes about religious liberty issues, I often despair over how little Christians know about dire looming threats to our most fundamental freedom. Luke Goodrichs book is the smart, plainspoken, biblically literate, and legally sound guide that churches, Christian schools, and business-owning believers desperately need to read as the conflicts between the faith and its enemies intensify. Buy this book and read it closely: the institution you save may be your own.

R OD D REHER , author of The Benedict Option

Today religious liberty is more likely to be carelessly disregarded as a special interest than faithfully upheld as a fundamental human right. People who love freedom need compelling arguments to offer in responsethe kind of arguments that Luke Goodrich makes in Free to Believe. In addition to offering biblical and theological reasons that all people (not just Christians) should have freedom of religious conscience, Goodrich uses his experience as a lawyer with a winning record before the Supreme Court to address the most challenging religious liberty issues that our culture faces today.

P HILIP R YKEN , president of Wheaton College

Free to Believe is a book for Christians struggling to understand biblical principles of freedom of religiona freedom that extends to all faiths and even to unbelief. Authors who truly understand the principles of our First Amendment are rare, and those among them who know and love the Scripture are rarer still. Luke Goodrich, one of Americas top litigators in religious freedom cases and a devoted servant of Christ, is both, and his book offers insight, faith, passion, and above all clarity.

M ICHAEL M C C ONNELL , director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and former circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Religious freedom is the quintessential firewall against totalitarianism. In his new book Luke Goodrich equips us with this truth: freedom to believe stands as the facilitative womb from which all other freedoms flow. This book will not only inform you but also inspire you to stand as an advocate for religious freedom, not just for our generation but for generations to come.

S AMUEL R ODRIGUEZ , lead pastor of New Season, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, author of You Are Next, and executive producer of the movie Breakthrough

Goodrichs defense of religious liberty is compelling for four reasons: its comprehensive about todays challenges to our First Amendment; its filled with both an unvarnished realism and hope grounded in deep faith; its shaped by the authors keen legal intellect and rich experience with the law; and its wonderfully readable. The United States is a republic founded on the commonsense and fundamental rights of everyday citizens. This is a vitally important book for all of us who value those rights and the best ideals of our nation.

M OST R EVEREND C HARLES J. C HAPUT , OFM C AP ., archbishop of Philadelphia

As a top attorney with Becket, our nations premier religious liberty appellate advocacy law firm, Luke Goodrich has been on the front lines in the battle to protect the rights of people of every faith and shade of belief. With the basic humanand constitutionalright to religious freedom under assault from many different quarters, it is a difficult and ongoing struggle. As Goodrich recounts in his marvelous new book, there have of late been some important and exciting victories in the Supreme Court and other federal and state tribunals. But enormous challenges lie ahead. In meeting these challenges, having an informed and engaged citizenry is critical. Thats why Free to Believe is such a blessing.

R OBERT P. G EORGE , McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University

Should Christians defend the religious liberty of non-Christians? And if so, why and how? These are but some of the crucial questions on which Luke Goodrich focuses his formidable intellect in his important new book, Free to Believe. Goodrich brings to bear his experience as one of the countrys premier religious liberty litigators and his lifelong love of the Scriptures. The result is a book that no one, on any side of these questions, can ignore. And its a great read besides.

K EVIN J. S EAMUS H ASSON , founder and president emeritus of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and author of The Right to Be Wrong

F REE TO B ELIEVE

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, ESV Text Edition (2016), copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NASB ) are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Scripture quotations marked ( NIV ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.