Book Review: Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America by Luke Goodrich
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This is not a book that would have caught my eye at a book retailer. It was given to me by a dear friend during the Covid-19 pandemic. He gave it to me with high accolades of its content and told me it was “a book you’d love.” He was right, I loved it!
A little about the author since he’s not well known. Luke Goodrich is a leading and prestigious religious freedom attorney at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He has won several high-profile religious freedom cases (like Hobby Lobby vs. Burwell) that have reached the Supreme Court. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Utah Law School. His credentials for writing this book are impeccable.
The gist of the book is two-fold: to explain the facts of religious freedom laws and to reveal how Christians should respond to them. Luke does an excellent job of explaining, in vivid detail, the background of laws protecting religious liberties, the intent of the laws and how they have been interpreted by courts as high as the Supreme Court. He avoids lawyer-eze jargon and writes in a smooth and captivating manner.
Laws and famous cases involving gay rights, abortion, and various religious freedoms imposed by Muslims, Jews and Hindus are discussed in this book. It is certainly eye-opening, I learned a lot of things I once thought were true are only half-truths regarding the laws of our country. I discovered I was pretty ignorant, and pessimistic, about the religious freedoms I believed were dwindling in this great country. Luke constantly encourages Christian readers to rest assured that the founding fathers of this country knew what they were doing when they established the Bill of Rights and other foundational documents of the U.S.
Luke backs up his guidance for how Christians should prepare, behave and project the love of Jesus Christ when involved in litigation pertaining to religious freedoms. He is spot on when he tells the reader to “let go of winning” and focus entirely on edifying the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we say and do for God is bigger than any governmental authority and still sits on His throne. Words such as these should give the reader comfort, like they did me, when reading this fascinating book.
This book is easy to read and understand. At times it is captivating. It is filled with liturgical facts many of you will be aware of. I give it a 5.0 out of 5.0 and encourage you to read it if you want to be informed and encouraged in the seemingly trying world we live in.
The book is available from our Affiliate Partner Christianbook Distributors for a great price at the link below. It is currently available in both hardcover and as an eBook.
Publisher’s Description:
Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America
By Luke Goodrich
Will Christian beliefs soon be marginalized as a form of bigotry? Applying biblical understanding to today’s most divisive issues, Goodrich offers a reasoned, balanced, and gospel-centered approach to religious freedom; explains why it matters; shows how it’s threatened; and gives believers practical steps for responding to conflicts in an informed, responsible, and graceful way. 276 pages, hardcover from Multnomah.
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