Dr. Gary Cass:
Fighting Religious Discrimination
In America Today

Upon returning to America he served for 20 years as a pastor in the San Diego area in the Presbyterian Church in America. Religious discrimination in that forum was more subtle, but real nonetheless: discrimination against the unborn.

During this period Dr. Cass picked up valuable experience in the pro-life movement and helping other Christians get elected to political office. Success in that arena attracted the attention of James Kennedy at Coral Ridge Ministries, who invited Dr. Cass to serve as head of the Center for Restoring America. He served in that capacity for three years until the death of Dr. Kennedy in 2007.

Which brings us to the present and Dr. Cass’s vital new role as head of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. He spoke with us by phone about the very real threat of religious discrimination facing American Christians today.

I served three years as the Executive Director of the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries, prior to Dr. D. James Kennedy’s death. That involved administrative oversight and vision casting for the organization. After the Center for Reclaiming America was forced to close it’s doors in 2007, I became Chairman and CEO of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission.

2. What Bible passages do you rely on to provide direction and motivation for your ministry fighting religious discrimination?

I Peter 3: 15, 16 and. Phil 1:7, 17 are particularly meaningful: “Be ready always to give an answer to everyone that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.”

The Church has a duty to defend itself and Christ from those who would seek to defame it. These verses give a clear call as well as examples in the gospels and Acts of how Christ and the apostles responded to defamation and bigotry.

3. What are some of the most blatant examples of Christian-Bashing you have observed in your tenure with the CADC?

We see it in pop culture, the music industry, movies and TV where Christians are portrayed in a negative light and stereotypically maligned. Hollywood is a mixed bag. There are some very good trends in more faith-friendly movies, yet there are still those who feel they must take every chance they get to demonize Christianity.

On TV and especially radio there are a lot of shock jocks who try to use Christian-bashing to advance their own career. A lot of second-tier comedians like Kathy Griffins try to be as blasphemous as they possibly can.

4. Any slight against Jews, homeosexuals, blacks, Muslims and certain other minorities receives an immediate outcry in the press. Yet Christians seem to be fair game for religious discrimination. Why do you think this double standard exists?

The double-standard happens for two reasons: First, people are held captive by a spirit of Antichrist. So they lash out at Christ because of their own sin and desire to promote their own sinful lifestyles. Second, people see Christians as impediments to the idea of a future that is fully secular with no reference to God

5. How does “hate crimes legislation” tie into all of this? What exactly is a “hate crime?” Why do you consider it to be dangerous?

Hate crimes are simply an attempt on the part of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and the ACLU to silence Christians. They are generally applied against Christians for standing up and preaching the gospel. It is an attempt to silence Christians by redefining criticism as hate.

They have made tremendous progress in a majority of states; a majority have hate crime laws. First, these laws violate the legal canon of equal justice under law. Second, judges must become mind readers as if they can see into the mind and motives of a person. Rather than just holding people accountable for what they do.

Evaluating motive is outside of the Constitution. Jefferson said laws extend only to actions not to thoughts; we need to uphold that. Some are being enforced; others are being challenged.

In Philadelphia we have some of the most stringent hate crime laws and people have been charged just for preaching the gospel. This is a clear violation of the First Amendment.

We are not involved in litigation. We get involved mostly by education in responding to incidents of bigotry.

6. What does the CADC do when instances of religious discrimination against Christians occur?

Our response is that it’s not illegal to be a bigot, but it is shameful. So we do what we have to do to shame them. First, we try to talk privately and get them to promise to do right thing.

Second, if they continue, we try to ramp up the pressure. That includes media exposure, talking to clients, vendors, etc. Especially clients. For example, we might send a letter asking, are you aware this firm is basically sending out an Anti-Christian message? By working with this firm you are associated with this messaging.

7. Are you publishing a major media score card documenting rate of discrimination against various groups, including Christians?

No, we haven’t got anything like that going yet. There is no hard data available. Eventually we want to do our own research. Right now, there is no place to go to get that. Whatever exists is usually anecdotal.

8. In addition to playing defense against religious discrimination have you found going on the offense by publishing cases of Christian charity, etc. to be effective?

There are two parts to what we want to do: First we try to educate Christians how to respond to bigotry, and second, the other part of what we’re doing is trying to educate the offender. For example, a recent ad campaign in California was depicting a drunken Nun with glass of wine using the Lord’s name in vain.

Initially, we draw a comparison to open their eyes:You wouldn’t portray a Muslim with an AK47 in front of a mosque, would you?
You wouldn’t portray a Jew wearing a swastika making jokes about the holocaust, would you?
You wouldn’t portray a homosexual dying of aids making fun of others dying of aids, would you?
You wouldn’t portray an Obama look-alike holding a rope at a lynching, would you?
Why then is it OK if for you to use the Lord’s name in vain?

We just begin by educating them about their advertising. If they’re making jokes like that in public, you have to wonder what they are saying in private.

9. How can Christians get involved with your ministry?

We need people to make reports of religious discrimination. For example, somebody emailed me an ad of the company in San Francisco and the email exchange. This company was initially very unresponsive. We’ve sponsored boycotts of companies that haven’t responded and got them to change their minds.

One of the talk show hosts in Huntsville, Alabama was going out of their way to insult Christians. We contacted 100 of their advertisers: “We’re getting ready to send flyers into your community advising them of who supports this. You’d better contact the radio station and ask them to knock it off. We run campaigns to hold people’s feet to the fire.

Click to read the WVNN radio articles. I appreciate whatever you can do to get your readers to report incidents of religious discrimination to us. If we don’t stand up for each other, nobody else will.