In his daily “End of Day” E-mail, Gary Bauer (former president of Family Research Council, 2000 presidential candidate and Reagan official) challenged church leaders to take a public stand. To which we say, AMEN!

(Bauer) “As most of you know, I am an evangelical Christian who has been frustrated that so many churches are wimping out of the values debate over fear that they may “offend” someone. Even if some evangelicals may be hesitant to speak up, other religious Americans are not. The Mormon Church, for example, played a tremendous role in supporting Proposition 8 in California, and they are suffering for it as a result, with mobs gathering in front of Mormon temples. Pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church is also coming under attack. And this Sunday, a radical homosexual rights group disrupted the service at Mount Hope Church in Lansing, Michigan, setting off the fire alarm, throwing condoms, shouting at worshippers and unfurling offensive banners.

Catholic leaders are also stepping up to the plate, concerned about the assault on the sanctity of life. The Washington Times reported that the nation’s Catholic bishops “served notice to the future Obama administration that they will oppose ‘a culture of coercion’ on abortion,” with several bishops warning that the church must be prepared to suffer for its beliefs. Bishop Robert Hermann of St. Louis said, “We have lost 50 times as many children in the last 35 years as we have lost soldiers in all the wars since the Revolution. I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about an end to abortion. If we are willing to die tomorrow, we should be willing, until the end of our lives, to take all kinds of criticism for opposing this horrible infanticide.”  He went on to issue a challenge:
“I can only hope that more conservative evangelical, Southern Baptist and Orthodox Jewish leaders will speak up just as forcefully in defense of our Judeo-Christian values and become more engaged in the great moral debates of our day. Elections have consequences, and the authoritarian impulse of the Left is a real threat to free speech and religious liberty.”