Columnist George Will
points out that Apple’s openly gay CEO, Tim Cook, “… thinks Indiana is a
terrible place. (But) He opened
marketing and retail operations in Saudi Arabia two months before a man was
sentenced to 450-lashes for being gay.” Will
was commenting on Cook’s recent Washington
Post op-ed protesting Indiana’s new, now amended, Religious Freedom Restoration Act and similar initiatives around
the country. World Magazine reports that Cook has recently been in the United
Arab Emirates negotiating on behalf of Apple, where homosexuality is against
the law and the penalty is death.
Cook’s dishonesty is not
just in deeds, but also in words. The
Indiana law was passed to protect religious freedom … mirroring existing
federal law and law in 31-states around the nation.
Our Declaration of Independence notes our inalienable rights to “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But
for Cook, who purports in his op-ed to care about freedom, protection of “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for a Christian is an act of aggression
against gays. He renders religious
freedom meaningless by accusing those … who exercise their right of protection
… of discrimination against those who wish to violate their rights. “This isn’t a political issue. It isn’t a religious issue. This is about how we treat each other as human
beings,” he writes.
You would think that
Cook, CEO of the most valuable company in the world, with a reported personal
net worth of $400-million, could perceive his transparent double standard. Apparently, that is not the case. For him and other homosexual activists,
Christians cannot observe their religion and live by the Bible’s words they
hold sacred without discriminating against gays. If this is about “how we treat each other as
human beings,” as Cook writes, then how can he justify a same-sex couple going
to a baker or photographer they well know is Christian, for whom homosexuality
is a sin, and demand a cake or photography for a gay wedding? Can Tim Cook really believe that this is
decent, tolerant, freedom loving human behavior?
The truth is: The
objective of the homosexual campaign is not about American freedom. The objective is the de-legitimization and
annihilation of Christianity in America.
As founder and president
of the Center for Urban Renewal & Education, Star Parker, has said, this
did not begin yesterday. It is now
well over a half century that the words of our Constitution are being distorted
so that the very protections guaranteed for Christians are used as weapons
against them. From the prohibition of prayer in school, to exclusions
of public displays of the Ten Commandments and Christian symbols, to lawsuits
against Christian photographers for refusing to provide the photography for gay
weddings, the war against Christian presence in America becomes increasingly
open and aggressive. And what has
happened over the last half century while this has been going on? The institutions and behavior that provide
the glue holding together a faithful, civil, and virtuous society have
collapsed. The traditional American
family is in shambles. 43% of babies are
now born to unwed mothers … compared to 5% a half century ago. Additionally, we have aborted over 56-million
unborn children.
It was not coincidental
(but prophetic) that America’s first president George Washington warned the
young nation, in his farewell address, that religion and morality are “indispensable”
to “political prosperity;” and he cautioned against “the supposition that
morality can be maintained without religion.”
Meanwhile, as legal
violence is used in the war on Christianity at home, physical violence is used
in the same war in Muslim countries abroad. The Wall
Street Journal reports that Christians today make up 5% of the population
in the Middle East … compared to 20% a 100-years ago.
As many political and
business leaders cowardly enable this global war on Christianity, Christians
must stand in defense of themselves and their religion and convictions.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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