“Anti-LGBT attitudes are terrible
for people in all sorts of communities. They linger and oppress, and we need to stamp
them out, ruthlessly,” tweeted Josh Barro, a writer for the New York Times. In subsequent tweets he made clear that those
who believe in traditional marriage are not worthy of respect or civility and,
most alarmingly, that the government has the power to redefine words such as
marriage.
In Houston, TX, ironies-upon-ironies
abound in an anonymous group publishing the names and addresses of citizens
opposed to a gay rights measure. You may
recall, this also happened during the ‘Proposition 8’ campaign in CA. People who gave money to support traditional
marriage had their employers and addresses exposed, and then became subject to
harassment.
In NJ, a church had its tax-exempt
status revoked on property on which it refused to allow a gay marriage. In CO, NM and OR the nation has seen
photographers, florists and bakers compelled (against their will) to provide
goods and services to gay marriages. [I’ve written past blogs addressing these
various examples.] The gay couples could
have gone elsewhere, but instead decided to target these small businesses for
ruin … because of their religious beliefs.
President Obama and many Democrats
no longer talk about “freedom of religion.”
Instead, they talk about “freedom of worship.” One is no longer allowed to live and practice
one’s religion in the public square. They are only permitted to worship in their
places of worship.
At the liberal web publication Slate, a writer whose job is to advocate
for LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) issues treated with seriousness a
study that purports to show religious children are more likely to believe in
fantasies than secular children … because they might believe crazy things such
as a story about a crucified man who rose again from the dead. Interestingly, every example given was a story
from the Bible, not the Koran or books of other religions. This is not happening to orthodox Jews or
Muslims, but to Christians. Enormous
energy is being expended by the ‘left’ in America to make Christianity and
Christians unacceptable.
It raises a serious question
Americans must confront – Are gay rights and Christianity compatible? The answer appears to be ‘No.’ As gay rights activists use the tactics of pushing
for what they declare civil rights, they are targeting churches, religiously
affiliated groups and Christian businesses for harassment and lawsuits.
In Macon, GA, a gay teacher at a Catholic
private school decided to marry his partner. Catholics do not believe being gay, in-and-of-itself,
is a sin. But they do treat marriage as
a sacrament and maintain it must be between one man and one woman. Once the teacher decided to marry his partner,
the school dismissed him for corrupting the Catholic Church’s sacrament. The church also takes a hard stance on
divorce. But now the teacher has filed a
discrimination complaint against the school. He does not claim he was discriminated against
because he was gay. Instead, he claims
gender discrimination because he is a man who does not act like other men (i.e.,
he likes other men instead of women.)
Across the country, the ‘left’ has
decided our sexual preference is something we are born with; but our gender is
something we get to decide. Anyone who
thinks otherwise is threatened and harassed. Several thousand-year-old pillars of society
are being shoved aside in the name of ‘tolerance.’ Those who speak up for sanity, tradition and
faith are treated scornfully.
This will not end well for any of
us. Despite surveys designed to show the
contrary, children tend to do best with mothers and fathers. A society that willfully undermines
perpetuating itself is a society bent on suicide. One thing is for sure – a faith that survived
its followers being used as torches to light the streets of Rome will survive a
modern age hell bent on ruthlessly stamping it out.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
Right on target as usual!!
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