Too often, the church ignores or dismisses the impact of culture on the churched until a tragedy takes place like the untimely death of Whitney Houston.

We remember Ms. Houston’s soul-stirring performances, and we marvel at the awards she collected, the albums she sold and the money she made with such hits as “I Will Always Love You.”

As we grieve her death, we also must ask why she stopped loving herself and why she seemed so disconnected from the love of God.

Ms. Houston was raised in the church by her mother, gospel singer Cissy Houston. She will be eulogized today at a private, invitation-only funeral at her childhood church, New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J.

She returned many times to New Hope over the years, even after she became a star. Yet she chose to experiment with illicit and prescription drugs. She was ruined by a culture that appeals to the basic instincts of human existence.

In recent years, we have witnessed a parade of gifted, talented individuals with God-given abilities who fell to the pressures of the celebrity, entertainment and drug cultures.

Elvis Presley was a spiritual man, also raised in the church. Even after he became a megastar, he would make his way many Sunday evenings to historic East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church in South Memphis to listen to Dr. W. Herbert Brewster’s sermons and songs.

In his final years, while addicted to illicit and prescription drugs, he developed an insatiable desire to sing gospel music. He won three Grammy Awards, all for gospel recordings. As I watched his performances, giving his audiences all he had in pop music and then turning to gospel, I saw a man struggling to find himself.

Michael Jackson was also raised in a conservative Christian tradition, yet his lifestyle and culture destroyed a legend and left us heartbroken and filled with questions.

What can we learn from the unfortunate lives and untimely deaths of church-raised celebrities like Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley?

More important, what should we be telling our children about these deaths?

Lesson 1: The culture in which we live is powerful and can change assets into liabilities. Whitney Houston had it all — fame and fortune, gold and glory, talent and treasure — yet bad decisions rendered her broken and abused.

Lesson 2: Destiny is determined not by chance but by choice. Decisions are the tools with which we build character. The daily decisions we make will determine where and how we live our future and eternity. Good decisions can overcome bad situations and circumstances. Bad decisions can negate good talents and gifts and destroy life.

Lesson 3: Life is not measured by the abundance of things we accumulate for ourselves, but by the service we render to others. The lives of great men and women have all been punctuated by altruistic efforts to help the last, the least and the lost of society.

The Apostle Paul admonishes the church not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This involves developing and embracing a new world view and a new set of values and demonstrating new behavior and new choices.

The church has been commissioned by Jesus to transform the culture. We are commissioned to go into all the world and teach and baptize converts in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Too often, it is the culture that transforms us. Too often, we are converted to the ways of the world.

Dr. L. LaSimba Gray Jr. is senior pastor of New Sardis Missionary Baptist Church.

A wise man once said we can judge a tree by its fruit. President Obama declares himself a friend of religious people, but the actions of his administration show him to be a supporter of a different faith — one that claims to be no faith at all.

The central tenet of this secret faith is radical personal freedom. For true believers, the individual is master of his or her own destiny and no God or government has a right to impose restrictions on the exercise of that freedom. Radical personal freedom first asserted itself with requests for tolerance. Having attained ascendency, it now tolerates no opposition. Individuals or institutions that resist the freedom-above-all-else revolution are demonized or directly attacked.

The Obama Administration has been consistent. In the name of radical personal freedom, the Justice Department has refused to defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, despite the fact that it passed both houses of Congress with large majorities and was signed by President Clinton. The State Department has softened its efforts to reduce religious persecution around the world, but has championed lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. Our Constitution forbids the government to establish and/or give preference to any particular religion. The Obama Administration is violating that principle by using its authority to advance the agenda of radical personal freedom — at the expense of millions of Americans who understand our need to submit to an authority greater than ourselves.

Compelling faith-based employers to pay for contraception is more of the same. Religious people would be foolish to see this as a narrow attack on our Catholic brothers and sisters. Rather, it’s a strike at all religions that resist the demands of radical personal freedom — akin to demanding Muslims purchase unclean foods for their employees, or evangelicals stop teaching the Bible because it might offend.

All Americans who value the freedom of conscience should rally to support our Catholic friends, regardless of our views on contraception. Believers should pray that the President fully reverses this mistaken policy. If that doesn’t happen, we should decisively use the power of our votes in the upcoming election.

The Affordable Care Act raises difficult issues that cannot be simply characterized as a contest between religious freedom and reproductive rights for women. The moral teachings of the Roman Catholic Church are not binding on all U.S. citizens. Indeed, people of good conscience have moral and spiritual principles that support reproductive choices for women. Understandably the Catholic Church publicly objects to the posthumous baptism by proxy of its members by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Likewise Catholic institutions should not require its non-Catholic employees to accept religious beliefs that are against their conscience. Employee choice allows Catholics to abide by the teachings of their faith, and non-Catholics to do likewise. This is especially prudent if the institution is being supported by public tax dollars.

We live in a democracy, not a theocracy. Religious freedom gives every citizen the right to be differently religious or not religious at all. The state protects that right for all people. If a person’s faith calls him or her to the work of humanitarian care and social service, this is a great good. It should not require others who share in that work to accept religious teachings that deny their own freedom of conscience.

Many Biblical scholars believe that Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan is the story closest to the heart of his theology and worldview. In that parable, Jesus uses a Samaritan man—someone outside the boundaries of his own Jewish faith and doctrine—as an example of someone who is following God’s Law most authentically as he “crosses the road” and takes care of a stranger who has been left robbed and beaten.

That tells us something about the way we should live our faith — showing compassionate concern for the health and well-being of others, even when that compassionate concern puts us outside the lines of our traditional understandings and doctrines, even when that compassionate concern means that we respect the views of others that are not our own.

I am grateful that a compromise between the federal government and Catholic institutions over the directive that health insurance plans provide coverage for birth control. These Catholic institutions — hospitals, social outreach organizations like Catholic Charities, schools — have been instrumental in bringing healing and well-being to so many in our country. Part of the great legacy of these institutions has been a willingness to “travel to the other side of the road,” as the Good Samaritan did, to provide care without regard for religious background or affiliation.

I am grateful that they are being encouraged to do this for their own employees—some of whom are Catholic and many of whom are not. Family planning is an essential element of health care for women. It is a matter of life and death for some women; a matter of emotional stability for others. For some, it is the critical element in maintaining financial stability and the ability to care for their existing families. For all women, it is a matter of dignity.

Catholic institutions that employ so many—and give so much—will be well-served by respecting this critical health care need. A majority of Catholics feel the same way. According to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted just this week, most Catholics agree that that religiously affiliated employers should offer health insurance that provides contraception. It’s a matter of good health and public policy—and also true to the heart of the life of faith.

Our Baptist Joint Commission for Religious Liberty in our nation’s capital has issued some very fine statements on Obama’s new, broadened policy which expands the religious accommodation and requires insurance companies to offer contraceptive services free of charge directly to employees at religious institutions that object to providing them. As a woman of faith, I agree with this perspective that this is a positive step in protecting the right of religious institutions to define themselves and accommodate religious conscience at the same time. The new policy leaves room for the health care needs of women–Catholics and non-Catholics alike–to obtain the health care coverage they need. Believing that our religious freedom is our first freedom and must be protected, it is important at the same time that we are mindful of the health care needs of all employees.

Women should have access to the full spectrum of medical options available for birth control in facilities that purport to serve the public. President Obama’s compromise is politically astute but problematic. It assumes that church doctrine in male-dominated religious organizations should be weighed in the balance when women’s health options are being considered. If a church owns a hospital or health organization that is open to the public, it should not be exempted from the legal requirements that apply to all such providers. This is a secular nation with a preference for the separation of church and state, and a commitment to the free expression of diverse religious perspectives. As stated in the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” Doesn’t it seem reasonable that if the government is not going to interfere with religion, that religion should not be allowed to interfere with the health options for women?

Regarding contraceptives and “local option” for agencies to refuse to distribute them, I think we need to remember we are virtually ALL taxpayers, and sometimes it is best to observe a law while working to
try to change it. It would be interesting to see results on this question of an anonymous poll of women from faiths and denominations currently listed as opposed to birth control.