Posted on 08/24/2016 10:35:30 AM PDT by Kaslin
Religious liberty concerns continue to weigh heavily on church-going Americans. In a recent survey from Pew Research, 40 percent of those who reported attending church in the last few months said that clergy spoke about religious liberty.
No other issue received more attention from clergy. And not surprisingly so.
The aggressive growth of secularism in our nation, along with the natural outgrowth of this, the tendency of secularists to turn to big government to define and implement what they perceive as fair, is on a collision course with religious liberty.
Traditional church-going Americans have always taken comfort in the first amendment -- "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." -- as government protection from outside aggression into their space.
The new secularists relate to government less as a source of protection and more as a tool of aggression, as a battering ram to force others to accept and live with values they reject.
We have had government redefine our ancient biblical institutional of marriage. And now we are witnessing the use of government power to obliterate all sense of appropriate sexual behavior.
The most recent salvo has been in California with Senate Bill 1146. The bill was designed to take on Christian colleges and universities that operate to assure that students at their institutions behave in line with biblical Christian values.
That is -- no unisex dorms, no unisex bathrooms, no public sexual behavior indicative of lifestyles inconsistent with what a biblical society expects of young men and women.
Federal law prohibits government funding for schools that discriminate against students, including on issues of sexual behavior. However, religious schools may apply for an exemption.
SB 1146 was drafted to short-circuit this exemption and to open a path for LGBT students to sue for discrimination and to jeopardize the receipt of Christian universities, and their students, of government funds.
After an intense lobbying campaign by clergy and these religious institutions, the sponsor of the bill, Democratic State Senator Ricardo Lara relented and agreed to a compromise which just requires these institutions to make public why they applied for and received their federal exemption.
Surely among the reasons that the senator relented was that it became clear that the law would badly hurt minority students. Black and Hispanic students disproportionately receive government financial aid and these minority students also disproportionately attend Christian colleges and universities in California.
Although this is one battle that is, for the time being, over, the war is just getting started. Senator Lara indicated that he wants to "take a break to really study this issue further." Similar sentiments were expressed by a legal consultant to Equality California, a LGBT civil rights group.
Among the droves lobbying against this bill was Pastor Marc Little, chief operating officer and general counsel to the Faithful Central Bible Church, a large, predominantly black church in Inglewood, California. Pastor Little also serves on the board of my organization, CURE.
Pastor Little visited offices of assemblymen in Sacramento, leaving behind a position paper explaining opposition to the proposed legislation. When he returned home, he found a profanity laced phone message from the chief of staff of one of the assemblymen he visited.
The cultural war in America is raging. And it will continue to rage regarding the ongoing elucidation of what values define America, what it really means to be free, and if we even care.
The compromise reached with SB 1146 may be a beacon for the future. We are becoming a divided nation, with many who have little in common in how we see the world. The challenge will be how we all can live together.
We can, once the term ends for the race baiter in chief.
Nope, the days of “We Conservatives & Liberals may have our differences but we are all Americans in the end” are long over.
Time for Succession. Now.
Sure we can live together - once everyone submits to the Fascist LIEberals who demand to run every aspect of our thoughts and lives.
I can get along with anyone as long as the areas we differ on rarely come up - or do not directly affect our lifestyles in ways that are not compatible.
Often times, it’s not someone’s beliefs that cause me a problem. It is cultural differences that just makes it “no fun” to be around them. Sometimes it involves a lot of work with no reward.
I like to be around people that have the same interests as me and, at least a little, agree with me.
Heck, I’m about as anti-homosexuality as you can get, but I’ve had homosexual friends. But it doesn’t come up, any more than the sexuality of the rest of my friends comes up.
I do NOT have to live next door to you to be part of the same world.
We are always entitled to choice.
...”We are becoming a divided nation, with many who have little in common in how we see the world. The challenge will be how we all can live together”....
What nonsense......we, as Americans with varying ethnic backgrounds, will never live ‘together’, nor have we in the past. Rather every ethnic group gravitates to their own kind throughout America, living “along side” the other but rarely together.
However, attack this nation and it won’t matter one way or the other...the nation comes together when it matters that it does.
Agreed.
Exactly!!!
No
Call for Texas on line ONE....Texas?
Civil war is coming, weather you want it or not, either that, or genocide if Hillary wins ... Not joking, when she moves to take away guns, that’s the turning point ...
...” It is cultural differences”....
Well that’s what tell people when I’m accused of being racist. I’m not racist...I just know there is a distinct difference in the cultures...and I don’t like the black nor the Asian cultures. I have the freedom to choose who I associate with and like....it is always a problem when they see American life ‘through their culture mindset” rather than as America is.
I have a few black friends who live in white communities by choice...they did not want their children raised in black communities....THEY adapted to the community they moved to very well...and are upstanding citizens who contribute to the community...and are highly respected because they earned that respect for the individuals that they are.
When one side takes political discourse to the level of physical assault and destruction of property (just look at Minnecraponus Democrats), I have to say no. It’s either divide the country much like India and Pakistan, or the bloodbath.
....”I have serious doubts about how much Americans would ‘come together’ should we have another large-scale unifying event i.e. 9-11...the truth is, and it pains me greatly to say it, that America is gone. It has been destroyed”....
Not so...you cannot destroy the Spirit of this nation...and by that I mean those who do hold to our values and the freedoms we hold so dear....with the exception of many Muslims, who for their mindset cannot do so, I believe America’s best always rises to the surface and we see them all working together.
America is not gone....if it were we could not know what we are now fighting for....which is the awareness it’s been slipping away...but it’s not gone yet.
“We can, once the term ends for the race baiter in chief.”
It will be at least a hundred years until race relations improve to their level at 1965, and that’s far from certain. The only thing I believe to be certain about this is that riots lie in our future.
We can't. The values and principles of God-given natural rights and ordered liberty are utterly incompatible with anti-God, anti-freedom, libtard statism and socialism. There is no way to compromise between the two.
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