Letter to the Editor: Religious Educational Freedom Threatened By New Proposed Maryland Law

I love America. Our country has its faults to be sure, and it has a history that is filled with good, bad and ugly, but I love what this nation stands for and the freedoms we get to enjoy. Freedom isn’t free; it was afforded to us and our children by the blood shed for over two centuries by men and women so that we could hold to our views and live them out peaceably. Sometimes we may think that freedom is guaranteed, but it is not, and in the case of my family, we know that personally.

I’m a first-generation natural born American, descended on one side of the family from Cuban and Colombian grandparents. The story goes that my Cuban grandmother, as a young woman, traveled to Columbia for mission work that was expected to last a few months. During those few months, Fidel Castro took over the island of Cuba, made it communist, and cut it off from the rest of the world. My grandmother couldn’t see her family again for nearly a decade.

If my grandmother had not left her native Cuba during that small window of time, I would likely not be here. Yet, by God’s grace, my Hispanic grandparents immigrated to the United States on July 4, 1976, and have cherished the freedoms from tyranny that have come with living here ever since.

As a passionate lover of history, I can attest to the rare exception to the general rule that this nation is in the scheme of empires and nations where peaceful transfer of power and the freedoms we enjoy are not typical. Authoritarianism, rule by force and revolutions with bloodshed are the norms.

Yet even as America approaches its 250th birthday, never have we seen threats to our freedoms and republic with hints of authoritarianism from both the far political left and far political right like we have seen in our politics for the last several years. Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” I believe if we do not pay attention to guarding the freedoms we enjoy, we will lose them.

A pivotal moment has arrived for those of us who value the freedom to choose which school we send our children to, and particularly for those of us who choose to send our children to schools with values and religious beliefs that align with our own.

Behind the scenes, the Maryland state legislature has been floating a new bill, House Bill 649. This law, presented in the name of anti-discrimination, threatens to do exactly that against private religious institutions that do not comply with state mandates or rules that would conflict with a private religious institution’s beliefs and views.

The broadly worded law would potentially allow parents and students to sue a private school for simply adhering to its beliefs if it’s perceived as discrimination by them, and they would have the backing of the state in doing so. It would be a major step toward imposing the ideology of the state onto a private religious school.

When I first heard about this bill, I assumed it would apply only to private institutions and schools that received state funds, but it would not. This would absolutely constitute an attempt by the state of Maryland to infringe upon the religious freedom of private schools and entities, and whether you are religious or not, whether your kids attend public or private schools, we should all be concerned by this attempted overreach.

In the years since COVID, parental freedom and involvement in choosing the school that our children attend has become more precious and more pronounced, and we should all let our voices be heard whenever there is any incremental step toward threatening the freedom to make those choices.

The legal costs that could be incurred by these private schools would be devastating, with claims motivated more by rejection of beliefs than actual injury. The Maryland Civil Rights Commission could mirror Colorado’s, bringing baseless cases against religious schools that refuse to acquiesce with mainstream culture, especially beliefs on sexuality and gender.

As a pastor, Christian, citizen and Maryland resident for life, and most of all, parent, I felt compelled to speak out and speak up. I encourage you to prayerfully consider contacting your senator before it’s too late. Religious schools should not have to choose between being able to operate and being able to adhere to their sincerely held beliefs.

We must move away from the politics of bullying the other ideological side into submission that has become increasingly the norm in our country and now threatens to become the norm in Maryland over this issue. For the Christian, remember that we are called to have courage, to stand up and speak up for what we believe, to always do so in love, and to hold true to the hope we profess, no matter what the cost.

“Stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be.” - Thomas Jefferson