I think the progressives are celebrating. Not gay marriage but they are celebrating their new ability to go after Christianity with the full force of the federal government.
Gramsci told gradualists and progressives that the largest obstacle to a communist takerover was the church. They will now use activist judges and hate crime law to do that.
I fear we will soon be seeing pastors from all over the country arrested for refusing to marry gay couples. The progressives will file hate crime charges. Churches will be closed, assets seized, and prison sentences will be handed out. They will start of with a few to make examples of them. The media will assist in this by painting these Christians as hate filled homophobic monsters.
They need a victim from their biggest obstacle. They now have a means of getting that victim and will use them.
Do they care about gay marriage? Probably not that much, they care about their revolution. They will use whoever they have too, to get it.
The ends justify the means...
Will this be the ultimate wake up for the "politics is dirty and therefore should be avoided" preachers out there? Or will it be the loss of the tax exemptions that do it?
I agree.
One of the first things to go is tax exemption for churches/religious organizations that don’t accept gay marriage. Actually, that’s a good thing. Our giving should be totally free from selfish motives/self-interest, and the belief that giving will drop is probably true - but giving by those who have pure motives will not change or drop.
This will also have a good effect causing churches/ministries that are not wholly dependent on the Lord to shrink and possibly go out of business. Those that are supplied by God will thrive.
Too long we’ve lived in a world that feigned our morals, totally unlike what the church in the first century faced. As someone else said long ago, “the winds of the world/this age are against Christ; woe to us if we think we are called to resting in the sun on a flowered hill...” (my paraphrase).
The move of our nation to be more and more anti-Christ is only to be expected, and should purify us and bring us to repentance and a closer walk with the Lord. Our testimony is not winning legal battles, but spiritual ones - His kingdom is NOT of this world, and our warfare is in heavenly places, against powers and principalities - the weapons of man’s warfare are ineffective there.
The dominant reason for our cultural decline is the fault of the church - “the salt has lost its savor”, and unlike the 1700’s and 1800’s, it has virtually no influence on the world around it. The opposite is true - the church looks just like the world and unbelievers see no difference. They see men in control, seeking their own glory and power, things driven by greed and lust for power, and grand buildings built to glorify man. They see church politics just like in our government. They see men in leadership falling into sin just like politicians.
But they don’t see the presence of God.
The testimony of the church as being the dwelling place of God is rare - but still exists in lampstands here and there.
The true church, being heavenly, cannot be touched by all this and all of this is for us first a call to “humble ourselves, repent, and call on God......” .....and learn to pray together.........