A leading religious freedom attorney, the veteran of several Supreme Court battles, helps people of faith understand religious liberty in our rapidly changing culture—why it matters, how it is threatened, and how to respond with confidence and grace. WINNER OF THE CHRISTIAN BOOK AWARD® • THE GOSPEL COALITION’S BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR, PUBLIC THEOLOGY & CURRENT EVENTS • NAMED ONE OF THE … & CURRENT EVENTS • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY WORLD MAGAZINE
Many Americans feel like their religious freedom is under attack. They see the culture changing around them, and they fear that their beliefs will soon be punished as a form of bigotry. Others think these fears are overblown and say Christians should stop complaining about imaginary persecution.
In Free to Believe leading religious freedom attorney Luke Goodrich challenges both sides of this debate, offering a fresh perspective on the most controversial religious freedom conflicts today. With penetrating insights on gay rights, abortion rights, Islam, and the public square, Goodrich argues that threats to religious freedom are real—but they might not be quite what you think.
As a lawyer at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Goodrich has won several historic Supreme Court victories for clients such as the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby. Combining frontline experience with faithful attention to Scripture, Goodrich shows why religious freedom matters, how it is threatened, and how to protect it. The result is a groundbreaking book full of clear insight, practical wisdom, and refreshing hope for all people of faith.
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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 Goodrich’s 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.
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.
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.
Goodrich’s defense of religious liberty is compelling for four reasons: it’s comprehensive about today’s challenges to our First Amendment; it’s filled with both an unvarnished realism and hope grounded in deep faith; it’s shaped by the author’s keen legal intellect and rich experience with the law; and it’s 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.
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 response — the 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.
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 nation’s 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.
Fascinating Discussion About Religious Freedom
This book is a rather complete discussion about Religious Liberty in the USA. The comparison of religious freedoms in the times of the founding fathers, how it changed in the time of my grandparents, how it changed in modern times and how it is in the time of my grandchildren. The book discusses how the change in the beliefs of the general population actually changes the legal protections. The author uses relatively current legal cases to show how discrimination travels both ways and not all of it is detrimental. This is a slow and serious book. It is also incredibly fascinating. It is not hard to read, but it is not ‘light reading’. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.
Luke Goodrich of Becket gives a comprehensive course on religious freedom and what it means to defend it for all.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when reading this book, as books of a political nature can sometimes veer to the extreme, but this book exceeded my every preconceived notion. Hailed by World Magazine as one of the books of the year, this book lives up to its high praise. Mr. Goodrich starts by defining religious liberty, and that it is for everyone. Outlining how supporting and showing respect/tolerance to other faiths, infact strengthens our witness as Christians and paves the way for winning legal conflicts in the public arena.
Mr. Goodrich effectively uses real legal case examples from his impressive repertoire, drawing on his experience and Christian faith to show a fair, balanced approach to how we as Christians should consider responding to these conflicts. I really liked how he acknowledges that each conflict is unique and there are multiple ways to respond that could be right, and every Christian has differing levels of conviction. I also was encouraged by how he used Biblical examples of religious persecution to show that what we currently face is nothing new under the sun, using the examples of Paul, Jeremiah, Esther and more.
Overall, a must read for everyone! It is balanced and a middle of the road godly response in a midst of a very polarized world, perfect for anyone who follows the news on religious freedom cases (which should be everyone). This book did a great job of explaining why we should all care about religious liberty as well as many things that Christians should consider in business and our witness. Highly recommend.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Much of America’s pilgrims came to the new world as an escape from religious persecution, They sought refuge in a country to practice their religion in freedom. Today, many of the ideas of religious freedom are being challenged. Luke Goodrich, author of the book Free to Believe: The Battle Over Religious Liberty in America offers his book to educate and inform his readers of the religious changes in America and the courts. I gratefully received this book as an advanced uncorrected copy from Waterbrook & Multnomah as a member of the launch team for an honest review.
Goodrich is a lawyer with Becket Law, a non profit legal institute that represents religious cases of various faiths. Goodrich has presented cases in both the Circuit and Supreme Court level. “Goodrich was part of the Becket legal team that won four major Supreme Court cases in four years: Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell, which protected nuns from being forced to violate their faith, Holt v. Hobbs, which protected the right of a Muslim to practice his faith in prison; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, which protected family business owners from being forced to violate their faith; and Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC, which protected the right of churches to select their ministers. The Wall Street Journal called Hosanna-Tabor one of “the most important religious liberty cases in a half century”(Luke). https://www.becketlaw.org/staff/luke-goodrich-2/
Goodrich’s definition of religious freedom follows: “religious freedom means the government, within reasonable limits, leaves religion alone as much as possible.” After defining religious freedom, Goodrich begins to discuss some of the most threatening topics to that freedom, he includes abortion rights, gay rights, the Muslim religion and religious representation in public areas. Goodrich illustrates his topics with thought provoking questions. The reader is challenged to explore how the change in our culture is affecting the freedoms of the religious institutions. As a Christian myself, I acknowledge how easy it is to become complacent about the freedoms we enjoy in America. Though not an easy read due to the detailed information and depth of the topics presented, I do think it is a powerful tool to examine the current political and governmental climate and the effect on religious freedoms.
“Luke Goodrich.” Becket, 23 Oct. 2019, https://www.becketlaw.org/staff/luke-goodrich-2/.
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.
Decent Start. Before I get into this review, it is probably important that you – *my* reader – understand the perspective I’m coming from. And that is that of the “Doorkeeeper” of Sam Shoemaker’s somewhat famous poem “I Stand At The Door”. So look that up and you’ll understand why I’m approaching the rest of this the way I am.
For those “deep inside”, they will probably rate this book around 4* or 5*. From that perspective, it is solid but might step on a few toes here and there – and they’re not always going to like its slightly-more-pragmatic-than-many-of-them approach to its reasoning.
For the “far outside” crowd, they’re probably going to rate this thing much closer to 1*, though the more objective among them might hit it at 2*. There are just so many issues with the book, and this crowd will likely judge them more harshly than I’m about to.
So that is the range I would expect depending on where a particular reader falls on the scale of “deep inside” Christendom – particularly its American version – vs “far outside” of it. Standing at the door, I note that I deduct 1 star immediately the instant I see prooftexting, which is the practice of citing random Bible verses out of context in support of some point or another.
The fact that the prooftexting herein is so rampant – from the ending of the first chapter until nearly literally the last words of the text – and so invidious – several times very obviously taking verses *far* from their original context and meaning by any even semi objective reasoning and often times taking as little as a single word from a particular verse – means that I can’t rate this any higher than 3*. And we haven’t even gotten to the other issues yet.
The other issues being factual errors and logical fallacies, mostly strawmen but also a few others. This, from a lawyer that boasts of his perfect US Supreme Court record! Factual errors include claiming that a factory is a “typical” work environment in the US. It hasn’t been for many years now. Similarly, the author claims that “many” doctors were practicing while abortion was still completely illegal in the US, pre-Roe v Wade, which was decided nearly 37 yrs before the publication of this book. How many professionals – of any stripe – do you know who are still working after 4o years?
The strawmen primarily involve abortion, gay rights, and public spaces – which form 4 of 7 chapters in the biggest section of the book. Here, it becomes evident – particularly in the author’s discussion of gay rights – that his closeness to the issue from his professional work becomes as much a hindrance to what he is willing to speak to as a help in pointing out various legal aspects of the circumstances.
It is because of these final two issues that I had to drop my own rating from 3* to 2*.
There is much good to be found here, and at minimum it can help even non-Christians see what prominent Christian legal scholars are thinking. But the issues are simply too rampant to allow me to rank it any higher. Recommended, but should be read with an eye to what is not said as much as what is.