Of course we will defend you.
Or, at least, I will.
But I think you take a very pessimistic view of the future. the conservative, evangelical churches are the ones that are growing while the TEC (two the’s there) is fading and dying.
Why would churches who are in the majority be persecuted??
Already in England, the Roman Catholic organizations and the Church of England have been forced to hire or not fire active homosexuals—and in certain jurisdictions in the USA we are close to that state of law, if not there already.
Pastors have been prosecuted for “hate speech” in Canada, and Scandinavia too, for simply preaching homosexual practice is morally wrong—and these were not wacky hateful types either. A pastor in the western part of Germany was convicted of “holocaust denial” simply for comparing abortion to the holocaust (he never denied the holocaust at all). PC forces in Western democracies are dead set against Christians in the name of equality. All it would take are a couple Hillary appointed justices...and we could have a near-fascist state, in my opinion.
Not optimistic, true, but real. The left in our country are not freedom loving democrats—they are more than happy to force their “enlightened” opinions on the rest of us, all in the name of equality. One of those enlightened opinions is the interchangibility of men and women—first showing itself in radical feminism (which brought us abortion, and kept us the nation with the highest abortion rate in the West) then, on that interchangeability trend, going all the way with homosexual “rights.”
In the church, the approach to scripture (reading around it...) which brought women to the pulpit, also quickly allowed the reading around of the relevant passages on homosexual (and other forms of sexual) sin. The same method of scripture interpretation is used for both. Yes, the women’s issue isn’t grossly sinful, or even inherently sinful, like homosexual sin is, but still, its the same horse (of poor or absent Bible interpretation) that brought both the issues in.
I can envision a time too, where if Churches don’t have the requisite number of women in leadership, they will be deemed sexist “hate” groups too, and lose their tax exempt status, going right along with homosexual hiring quotas... So that’s the kind of persecution I can see. Especially in a time when “everyone” will think it unbelievable that a church would still not allow women clergy.
Don’t think it can’t happen either. Ted Kennedy has proposed such “anti-discrimination” laws as would make the above scenarios inevitable—having no exemptions for religious institutions. These kinds of laws are already in effect in the UK—and already institutions are cowing and bowing to the powerful forces behind the law. You can bet for every prosecution that makes the news, 20 other cases never make the news as they are settled (caved) privately. Legally enforced “equality” for things like behavior (”orientation”) and yes, sex (gender), is quickly doing in liberty in our lands.