More than seventy-five academics and religious leaders have declared their opposition to laws that punish Christians and people of other faiths who practice beliefs that gender cannot change and that marriage is between a man and a woman. The signers of “Preserve Freedom, Reject Coercion” include The Stream Executive Editor Jay Richards.

According to the statement, thanks to laws across the country, “people of good will can face personal and professional ruin, fines, and even jail time, and organizations face the loss of accreditation, licensing, grants, contracts, and tax-exemption” for holding to traditional views on marriage and sexuality. The signers also declare:

We affirm that every individual is created in the image of God and as such should be treated with love, compassion, and respect. We also affirm that people are created male and female, that this complementarity is the basis for the family centered on the marital union of a man and a woman, and that the family is the wellspring of human flourishing. We believe that it is imperative that our nation preserve the freedoms to speak, teach, and live out these truths in public life without fear of lawsuits or government censorship.

Endangered Freedoms

While marriage was legally redefined nationwide in 2015, many state laws require citizens who hold traditional views on sexuality to act in opposition to their views. One of those laws has been challenged in Washington State by florist Baronelle Stutzman. Stutzman, a Christian who fought her case at the state Supreme Court earlier in November, was sued for declining to serve a gay couple’s “marriage” ceremony because of her religious beliefs. She faces bankruptcy if she loses the case.

A law that could have jailed pastors in Massachusetts for using biologically correct pronouns, meanwhile, has been modified to protect religious leaders. Christians who are not pastors still face fines and possible jail time if they use pronouns that don’t meet the government’s approval, or decline to open sex-segregated bathrooms to the opposite sex.

Many of these laws don’t just target just Christians, but instead an entire citizenry. Perhaps most famously, North Carolina’s HB2, which responded to a City of Charlotte mandate that bathrooms be opened to anyone of either gender, reiterated that business owners have the liberty to make their own bathroom policies. HB2 was declared by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to be akin to racist Jim Crow laws that existed prior to the Civil Rights Era.

“As Americans, we cherish the freedom to peacefully express and live by our religious, philosophical, and political beliefs,” say the signers, “not merely to hold them privately. We write on behalf of millions of Americans who are concerned about laws that undermine the public good and diminish this freedom for individuals and organizations alike.”

The 79 signers included leaders from every Christian tradition. Among the signers are Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptists’ Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and Albert Mohler and Paige Patterson, presidents of the SBC’s two largest seminaries. The list includes Catholics like Archbishop Charles Chaput, president of the Franciscan University Sean Sheridan, and scholar Robert P. George. Presbyterian theologian Peter Leithart and Orthodox scholar John Mark Reynolds also signed.

The statement was posted on the Colson Center website.