Posted on 04/08/2015 11:52:51 AM PDT by wagglebee
April 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dozens of Christian leaders have vowed they will not remain silent, as they did following the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, promising to take nonviolent direct action if the High Court votes to redefine marriage.
The Supreme Court is deciding two separate issues: Whether the 14th Amendment guarantees same-sex “marriage” as a constitutional right, and whether states must honor same-sex “marriages” contracted in states that have voted – or, more likely, where an unelected judge has forcibly determined – to redefine marriage.
“We believe that the majority of the Court will rule in favor of elevating what we have always taught to be a sinful lifestyle to the stature of a civil right — forcing us to choose between their ruling and our religious convictions that are based on Scripture,” said Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist minister who now heads Vision America Action. “Christians are being declared the lawbreakers when we are simply living by what we have always believed and by a set of laws that the culture historically has agreed to.”
He envisioned the Obama administration acting by executive order and federal fiat to promote the LGBT agenda.
“With the current administration there is every reason to believe that the executive branch will use the full weight of the federal justice system to enforce this,” Scarborough said in a conference call attended by some 30 national ministry leaders, as reported by James Robison, a noted evangelist and founder of TheStream.org.
“This is a Bonhoeffer moment,” Scarborough said, according to Robison. “What will we do and how will we respond?”
Others on the call affirmed his urgency. “This is Roe v. Wade all over again. I am standing shoulder to shoulder with all who will stand up for God’s Word concerning marriage,” said Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Family Talk Radio. “To the extent that I am able to influence anybody, I will do it with passion.”
A Supreme Court decision, following a string of lower court rulings that struck down democratically enacted amendments protecting marriage as the union of one man and one woman, would further fracture society and restrict the free exercise of religion, participants in the call warned.
The ruling follows an ongoing controversy over whether states like Indiana and Arkansas should adopt state versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a Clinton-era federal act aimed at preserving private citizens' First Amendment rights.
Business owners have been sued, fined, and even threatened with death for refusing to participate in same-sex “wedding” or commitment ceremonies, although doing so would clearly breach their sincerely held religious beliefs.
Redefining marriage would impact society in other negative ways, the call's speakers said, according to Robison.
Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel said that, by sanctioning a relationship that excludes either of a child's biological parents by design, the justices would be “essentially saying that boys and girls don’t need moms and dads — that moms and dads are irrelevant.”
Staver warned that, in some ways, this decision would be worse than the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion-on-demand in the United States.
“Roe v. Wade was a time when the church should have said no, regardless of what seven Supreme Court justices said,” Staver told the call. “The difference is Roe was a wrong decision that resulted in a loss of life – but people were not forced to participate. With this issue, people will be forced to participate and affirm it. It will affect licenses for counselors, attorney disciplines, and every licensing profession will be affected.”
Christian critics have said for decades that homosexual activists and pressure groups sought to channel the power of the state to affirm the morality of their actions. Nor are they alone in their critique. Lesbian activist and talk show host Tammy Bruce said the LGBT activists' harassment constitutes “bullying” and “fascism.”
Churches would face civil rights litigation and “have the same issues with tax exemption over sexual preference as you have now over race.”
“It will not be long if same-sex marriage is adopted that other universities could lose tax exemptions if they maintain a policy based on natural marriage and biblical morality,” Staver said.
Staver cited Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Luther King Jr. as proponents of civil disobedience.
In an unrelated story, Pat Buchanan has also called for resistance to any court decision that imposes a new definition of marriage upon the states.
Staver closed by encouraging his fellow Christians to send a message to the Supreme Court justices. “Tell them now that if they cross that line they will become an illegitimate institution, that the Supreme Court will lose the respect of the American people and therefore lose its authority,” he said.
lawand take advantage of the misconception that
the Constitution is whatever the USSC says it is.
The federal gov’t, long ago, crossed the line from legitimate authority to authority ad baculum.
They are only obeyed now because of their ability to use force to require compliance, not because they are seen as a legitimate authority to be obeyed.
As much as I admire Bonhoeffer, I have no desire to be him.
Better to take real steps before the fascists get that kind of power.
Steps that to date I have to say, sadly, many if not most of these “leaders” have refused to take.
And I’m talking simple steps based on principle, acting within a peaceful, lawful, political framework.
That wouldn't matter if there were any real patriots in existence today who had balls bigger than a shrew. Unfortunately, there's not.
Internment camps.
Interment is the burial of a corpse.
;)
This article would be laughable if it wasnt so sad. So the major, huge threat that Christians bring is to hold the opinion that SCOTUS as an illegitimate institution.
Ooooh, that’ll show em! As if Roe v Wade wasn’t enough. As if countless other decisions weren’t enough. But now, we’re really gonna show ‘em. And if that doesn’t work then...then..Christians might get real ugly and take them off their HOLIDAY card lists!
There are. But most conservatives won’t give them the time of day. Too busy following false flags.
Good.
I would hope refusing to participate/ perform sodomite ceremonies. But I fear many will fold like cheap suits under pressure from vocal members of the congregation.
I have been accused of the logical fallacy of steep slope-ism but you tell me where the hell will we draw the line if not here.
By the way, it was seventy years ago today, on April 8th, 1945, that “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wilhelm Canaris, and other anti-Nazis were convicted and sentenced to death by an SS drumhead court-martial presided over by Otto Thorbeck. At dawn the next day...Bonhoeffer and Canaris [and others] were hanged in the Flossenbürg concentration camp. They were forced to strip naked before being taken to the gallows. The camp was liberated two weeks later by American forces.”
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/323555554452876523/
Perhaps we will have the sad role to see how this generation of Christians performs under the kind of real persecution endured by Bonhoeffer. I hope not, but the longer we take to clean up our own house and begin to do right, using the simple, peaceful political means we already possess, the more likely it becomes.
That would be kinda hard because most people on this side have to go to work to make a living.
My comment was intended for those who may not be familiar with him. I did not mean to imply that you specifically were not.
I’ve given that some serious thought. I don’t think it’s a lack of courage or will. I know quite a few people (several of them are Freepers) who have the gonads to act.
I think the missing factor is organization. For all his faults, Glenn Beck was able to organize the 9/12 rally in D.C. and hundreds of thousands showed up. No one is rallying the masses so-to-speak. (No, I don’t think Glenn Beck is the answer.)
Mark Levin is pushing for the Liberty Amendments, which I support, but that is a political solution. Absent a catalyst, most patriots are quietly prepping to defend themselves and their loved ones.
The Cliven Bundy incident is the closest thing I’ve seen to a catalyst.
LOL! I know, I was just hoping for some specifics.
They’re unelected political hacks in black muumuus. Yet we seem to grant them reverence and hold them in awe like they were holy shamans.
They’ve definitely got the political theatrics down pat.
The Christian Leadership of this country, such as it is, reminds me of Pro-Life, Inc. the alleged opponents of infanticide who instead seem to survive and thrive so long as the practice continues.
To paraphrase James Michner: “they came to do good, and ended up doing very well.”
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