Posted on 10/17/2014 5:14:36 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Support for legalizing same-sex marriage dropped from 54 percent to 49 percent since February, according to a Pew Research Center poll. Analysts said they had no idea why or if it was just a random blip. I joked on Twitter that my April article “Rise of the Same-Sex Marriage Dissidents” probably was the cause.
But in all seriousness, perhaps seeing the totalitarianism of extremist wings of the gay rights movement has soured some people on efforts to change marriage law — or at least given people pause about the tradeoffs involved with redefining marriage or enacting broad legislation around sexual or gender identity. We’ve all seen the stories about lawsuits against small business owners. The boycotts against companies for harboring employees who haven’t jumped on the bandwagon and therefore believe marriage is essentially built around sexual complementarity. The public outrage of enthused mobs believing themselves to be on the right side of history.
And the latest story out of Houston will likewise do little to quell concerns that religious liberty and free speech are under serious attack. Earlier this year, the City Council passed a law regarding rights related to sexual and gender identity. Mayor Annise Parker has made support for this law — the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance — a major part of her administration. A petition drive to repeal the ordinance — with more than 50,000 signatures, and only 17,259 required — was disallowed by Parker and the city attorney. Some of the Houston citizens sued over the matter and the city responded by subpoenaing emails and sermons from five pastors who are not party to the lawsuit but were involved in the petition drive.
We need advocates along with martyrs
Yesterday, Brian Lee wrote here at The Federalist that pastors should be happy to send the sermons to city officials and refuse to be intimidated by government bullying. Further, he said, Christians should embrace persecution for the sake of Jesus. He also wrote:
And in that same epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote in chapter 13, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” The government’s request for sermon manuscript—even a mandate to that effect—seems to be one a Christian can in good conscience submit to, and even celebrate as an opportunity for bearing witness to Christ.
It’s absolutely true that faithful Christians should prepare for persecution from government authorities and be willing to testify of their faith in Jesus. But here’s the thing — while Christians are to be subject to the governing authorities, in this country we’re “a government of laws, not of men,” as John Adams put it.
The governing authorities in this case aren’t out-of-control mayors but our Constitution and other laws that protect our God-given religious liberty.
Much of Christian history is the story of martyrs, people who accepted punishments up to and including death rather than renounce the Gospel of Jesus. This country at times seems poised to add to that story. But Christians at the same time must worry about the consequences of Houston’s attack on religion.
Government intimidation of pastors is unjust
In this country, the right-side-of-history crowd uses intimidation to enforce conformity of thought. The tactics first used against supporters of California’s Proposition 8 have been repeated — sometimes it’s the IRS illegally leaking donor lists and sometimes it’s a local gay group posting the names and addresses of people who sign petitions. The purpose is intimidation, and it works really well. Until it doesn’t (see, again, my piece on the power of dissidents refusing to be intimidated).
But as unseemly as it is to see this tactic among activists, when it’s backed by the power of the government, that’s far worse.
Here’s Houston’s mayor defending the subpoena:
All the pastors should have a press conference and state that they do not block anyone from entering their churches. If the city officials want to see/hear what is in their sermons, they are more than welcome to attend the services.
Im still shockd by the lack of support from area churches.....then again maybe not.
Sometime ago, I heard Jay Sekulow, not about this Houston incident, but about something else, for the evil scum bags to bring it on. Let’s get this garbage into court, and let’s duke it out. A lot of the time, these A holes back off when they see the peasants carrying their proverbial pitch forks.
Homosexuals long ago won the battle have sex with whoever they want as consenting adults, and no one stopped them from forming monogamous relationships (which they very rarely do). They might have even peacefully achieved legal “marriage” had they worked to slowly alter public opinion.
The problem isn’t so much what they do in bed. We’re all sinners. No. It’s about their real goal to demand full acceptance and stamp out any dissent. That means infiltrating our schools so that teachers teach our children nonsense that homosexuality is normal, natural, and even laudatory. That means denying us freedom of religion and association. If the homosexuals are generous, they might allow us to silently pray about the sin of sodomy so long as we keep our thoughts to ourselves—but I wouldn’t count on the generosity of sodomites.
Don’t send them sermons - send them bibles. Makes a more profound statement, and any single sermon can be traced back to it.
How about daring Annise Porker to send in her goons?
Yep, time to rip the veil off the anti-christs among us.
Our Founders created our Constitution such that for tyrants to act, they must act criminally, in violation of the fundamental law of the land. The 2A is the ultimate check on such tyranny.
They are mostly sissy churches who do not want to teach the hard truths.
We all bag on Joel Osteen, but many other area churches are watered down in the same manner.
My wife told a liberal pastor (Church of Christ, I think, across the street from Rice U) when he invited us to a "meet and greet" flat out that we would not be attending his church because it, and he, was too liberal.
To his credit he recommended a church that was slightly less liberal.
“Im still shockd by the lack of support from area churches.....then again maybe not.”
The support for the 5 pastors from the area churches is solid up and down the line.
I have no confidence in the Courts.
Please see the event Sen. Cruz held at his (& my) church, Houston’s First Baptist. We are supporting the pastors & the First Amendment. We signed the ballot initiative in droves, & now we need to get going on recall petitions for the mayor & all city council members who voted for the ERO.
Jesus, Himself, said ,”Don’t cast your pearls before the swine
to you and all, dont take my comments as an insult to the “other” churches...Im all for getting the pitchforks and storming the palace!
Now isnt the time to “do nothing”!
I know the courts could become like the courts of Hitler and Stalin, so stock up on ammunition. You might need it.
I agree.
They could also, very publically, extend personal invitations to city official to attend services when sermons on homosexuality are going to be preached.
I have.
It cannot make 'political comments'
No Church should be 501C.
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