High Court Needs To Restore Rights for the Religious

Americans need to live and let live. Let the LGBTQ activists practice their preferences, and let Christians live the Gospel.

On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that a Catholic Social Services adoption agency in Philadelphia could continue to place children only with heterosexual couples, consistent with the Gospel's definition of a family.

Though The New York Times depicted the ruling as a setback for gay rights and "evidence that religious groups almost always prevail in the current court," it was far from either.

Unfortunately, the ruling settled nothing in the culture war between traditional religion and LGBTQ advocates.

Only a technicality managed to hold together the 9-0 majority. The ruling doesn't guarantee that religious organizations such as Catholic Social Services will be able to practice their mission instead of being shut down. As Justice Samuel Alito wrote in protest, the ruling "might as well be written on the dissolving paper sold in magic shops."

For over half a century, CSS placed children in foster and adoptive homes, according to its belief that "marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman." No same-sex couple ever asked the agency for help, or CSS would have referred the couple to another agency.

In 2018, after a newspaper article quoted the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as saying that the agency did not serve same-sex couples, the city refused to renew its contract. Both the federal district court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the agency's claims that its constitutional right to practice its faith was infringed. But on a technicality, the Supreme Court reversed those lower court rulings.

The nine justices were able to agree on only one thing -- that section 3.21 of the standard contract between Philadelphia and adoption agencies, a mere 56 words, meant that the city's actions were not protected by a 1990 Supreme Court ruling in Employment Division v. Smith. All the city of Philadelphia has to do is remove that section and it will be free to bar Catholic Social Services from offering adoption services.

What Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch argued in concurring opinions is that it's time for the Court to get to the heart of the matter. That 1990 precedent said that a law could impinge on a religion in practice as long as it didn't expressly and intentionally target it. The 1990 ruling upheld the firing of a government employee for smoking peyote, even though the employee claimed peyote was part of his religious ritual.

Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch declared that the 1990 precedent "urgently calls out for review." It "can't be squared with ... the Free Exercise Clause" of the First Amendment. The dangers posed by that precedent "are not hypothetical." A liquor law could have the practical effect of banning the use of wine in sacraments. A prohibition on butchering live animals could have, in effect, a ban of kosher meat. Or to the point, banning discrimination based on sexual orientation can put religious adoption agencies out of business.

Is our society so divided that we can't live and let live -- respect the rights of people of all sexual orientations but still allow people of faith to practice their beliefs?

The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015, and court rulings across the nation since then have guaranteed gay couples the right to adopt. The data show 21% of same-sex couples raising children have adopted, about seven times the rate for traditional couples.

But religious adoption agencies are being taken prisoners in the culture wars. Bethany Christian Services, one of the largest adoption and foster care agencies in the nation, had been finding homes for children for 77 years and operates in 32 states. But On March 1, it concluded that it had to start placing children with LGBTQ couples, against its principles, in order to maintain its government contracts.

There should be room for religious agencies to offer adoption services consistent with their creed and their centuries of service. The high court's 9-0 ruling offers them no protection.

As Alito concluded, "Those who count on this Court to stand up for the First Amendment have every right to be disappointed -- as am I."

Unfortunately, the ruling settled nothing in the culture war between traditional religion and LGBTQ advocates.

The 'war' was fought; and won; a long time ago...

A BIBLICAL Message about homosexuality

Genesis 13:13
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.
Genesis 18:20-21
20. Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21. that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Genesis 19:4-7
4. Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.
5. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7. and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing.
Leviticus niv
18:22 Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
20:13 If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

Psalms 12:8 The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.
Isaiah 3:9 The look on their faces testifies against them;
they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it.
Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.
================================================
2 Peter 2:13b Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight.
They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

Ezekiel 16:49-50
49. "`Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
50. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
Romans 1 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

18 The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and wickedness of those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse; 21 for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 While claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.

24 Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper. 29 They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite.
2 Peter 2
1. But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
3. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
5. if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
6. if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;
7. and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men
8. (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)--
9. if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
10. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
11. yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
12. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.

But there IS hope!!!
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10. nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
If you could NOT change, you would be in most pitiful shape...

The Health Risks of gay sex.

We are living in a Genesis 19:9 world...

"Get out of our way,” they replied.
“This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge!
We’ll treat you worse than them.”
They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.

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