Posted on 04/27/2015 2:14:31 PM PDT by NYer
Honestly, did anyone expect the situation to get this bad in Indiana?
Every single day seems to bring worse news.
The situation of the O’Connor family in particular has me sick to my stomach. Local news ABC 57 went looking for a restaurant owner that would go on camera to share their beliefs and found an unsuspecting girl behind the counter of a small-town pizzeria who said she would have no problem serving gay people but that they would not cater a gay wedding if asked.
Notice, there wasn’t even an act of discrimination — the girl simply answered a hypothetical question.
For this “offense”, thousands upon thousands of gay activists have inundated the pizzeria’s social media accounts with hatred and filth. The O’Connors have received death threats, they were forced to close the business, and now they may even leave the state.
For Christians, even when we feel we must condemn sin, we remember that we must always love the sinner, love the person.
The people attacking the O’Connors don’t bother with that distinction. For so many of them, the O’Connors are evil people who deserve evil things to happen to them. And they wish them evil.
It angers me to see innocent people like the O’Connors suffer, but it also greatly saddens me to see people like the ones attacking the O’Connors be led and lead themselves down the road of actual hatred. People who hate destroy themselves more than they injure the object of their hatred. The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is a perfect time to pray deeply for those who hate and persecute us for His sake. Because love is the only thing that can overcome hate.
So I’m asking you to join me in praying for all those fomenting hatred in Indiana and against those who believe in the sanctity of marriage.
We should especially pray for those in the media and those leading the charge against religious freedom. They bear a huge weight of responsibility for the lies, distortions and dehumanization that makes this intensity and prevalence of hatred possible.
We should also pray for the courage to stand up for religious freedom and for civility in our society. Christians have a duty to stand up for the truth, particularly in the face of intimidation and persecution. May silent prayer lead us to bold action.
Amen.
Ping!
Here is an excellent example of what I just posted to you on the Gay Marriage thread. It has nothing to do with marriage; it is all about power!
There is but one solution: Make the gays pay twice as much for their incursions into personal freedom.
And if the law doesn’t cooperate, who cares...there are still many ways to make them pay.
They wanted war, and they’re d*mned well gonna get it sooner or later.
“Hi, I’m gay and I think anyone who doesn’t celebrate every explicit detail of my sex life is hateful and deserves to be punished.”
“That’s why I want to compel those who consider my sex life sinful to artistically photograph my ‘wedding’, provide the pizza (such a common wedding meal!) to cater my ‘wedding’, bake a creative and expressive cake customized to celebrate my ‘wedding’, and in innumerable ways profit from my ‘wedding’.”
“Rather than allowing them to tell me that they disapprove, which would allow me to support businesses that support my choices, I want these Christians compelled to silently obey me and to silently serve me on demand. That way people who find me repulsive will profit from my ‘wedding’.”
“And it’s my right to force those people to make a profit from me, since there is such a shortage of gay florists, photographers, and bakers. Or something.”
**So I’m asking you to join me in praying for all those fomenting hatred in Indiana and against those who believe in the sanctity of marriage.**
Will do.
Fr. Z had a good suggestion the other day.
Take their order.
Let them pay in advance.
Then tell them that their money will be donated to a charity that supports marriage and that you will post on your website from whom it came.
Way to go, Fr. Z!
Heavenly Father, we are reminded of what your Son taught us about marriage, when he said, “He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore, a
man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’”
We pray together that as the justices of the Supreme Court consider the issue of marriage, your Spirit will be at work to cause the words of your Son to penetrate deeply into their hearts and minds, so that their deliberations will be guided not just by the Constitution and the law but by your abiding standards of right and wrong. Grant them a deep awareness that you and you alone are God.
Our Founders sought to conform our public policy as a nation to the “laws of nature and nature’s God.” We know, Father, that man-woman marriage is prescribed by the laws of nature and even more importantly is prescribed by your eternal law.
Please guide the deliberations of our Supreme Court so that they will be prompted by your Spirit to conform the law of our land to your law as our God. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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