If you want to know how the unleashed
panacea of sexual orientations or gender identities is going to both impoverish
and marginalize Christians from the public square in the wake of increased
governmental declarations of war on religious convictions, a proposed revision
in the city of San Antonio’s anti-discrimination ordinance gives us a glimpse
of what’s ahead.
If you are a Christian who believes
that marriage is defined as a relationship between a man and a woman or that
the Bible is absolute truth, then you cannot be a city employee. Why you can’t even have a contract with the city
of San Antonio. In fact, if you are such
a city employee now, and they find out that you voiced any such opinion in the
past or told an off-colored joke, it can be used against you and result in you
being fired.
Local pastors have said the proposed
bill’s vague phrases are subject to interpretation. Consider this wording on page 3 of the revised
city code: “You can forget that committee appointment if you’ve ever demonstrated
a bias, by word or deed against any person.”
“How do you figure out what a bias is?” asked Pastor Steve Branson of
Village Parkway Baptist Church. Branson
was one of more than a dozen local church leaders who gathered in a strategy
session to stop revisions to the city’s non-discrimination laws.
Branson said any faith-based
organization with a city contract would have to abide by the new rules; and any
bias — real or imagined — could cost jobs and contracts. “This is open to interpretation to whoever is
in control,” Branson added. “I predict
that believing Romans 1:18-32 is a message from God counts as bias. It is just a matter of time, and not much of
it, if the law is changed. I feel
ambiguous about this since I assume that most city governments of any larger
size are such sleazy pits of corruption that they really are simply another facet
of organized crime in the United States.”
Mark Horne of godfatherpolitics.com says, “This is a way to really hurt those
Christians who aspire to enter or stay the middle class, who often depend on
jobs in bureaucracies or owns small businesses. Even if the law gets shot down, you can be
sure that there will be many cities doing the same thing. States will try to mandate it for themselves
and for their cities. And the Feds will
use their own money power to do the same to the states. Again, the IRS won’t be too holy to collect
money from people who subscribe to forbidden religious ideas, but the Feds will
then use the funds to reward the people who pass their test.”
Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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