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Religious rights need protection
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier ^ | May 3, 2015 | Dennis Clayson

Posted on 05/03/2015 11:24:34 AM PDT by campg

When some of us expressed fear of what we saw and heard about the protests against religious-rights laws, many people either saw no issue or condemned us for being alarmist or hate-filled Christians.

It is time for well-meaning people to think this through.

Hillary Clinton said last week culture and religious beliefs “have” to be changed to achieve women's rights. Is that just feel-good rhetoric, or does she really mean it? If so, what does it imply to say religious beliefs “have” to be changed?

We don’t need to discuss theology. At its foundation this isn’t about theology at all, it is about culture and the statists’ desire to eliminate any god but the state. Besides, I’m tired of being told by political cartoonists and student column writers what Jesus really meant, as if they had a direct conduit to the Almighty.

The First Amendment to the Constitution states Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion. The courts have also ruled the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits religious discrimination. There are limits. Religious freedom cannot be used to justify acts that are clearly criminal.

When this is outlined, people defending the anti-religious activists will typically declare their sincere appreciation for the Constitution and their love of freedom except when religious freedom would allow people to do something they don’t like.

I’m sorry folks, but that is exactly why we have a Bill of Rights in the first place.

The fight for gay rights has already been won. Judges are falling over themselves to be in line to rule in favor of these rights. There are no national-level politicians who would dare say anything that could even be made to look anti-gay.

So why are the activists still purposefully finding and exploiting Christians’ reluctance to violate their own religious codes, even when those codes create no harm? It has little to do with gay rights and much to do with a coalition of statists along with a cadre of anti-religious bigots who are being exploited as cannon fodder.

This may sound harsh, especially if you have no experience with these groups. There are, however, people who can’t see, hear or read anything about a religion without making fun of it, and there are those who absolutely hate certain religions.

The statists themselves are motivated by grander things.

Why do you think religion was made illegal in the Soviet Union and in China? Why did Nazism create a new state religion? Was this all done because of the leaders’ great love for the truth?

It was done because the state is a jealous god, and there will be no god before the state.

Here is how it will go down. A gay couple will purposely pick out a pastor they know will not marry them. They request the pastor perform the marriage. He says no, it would be a violation of his religious beliefs to do so.

The pastor and his church then will be subject to a PR campaign emphasizing the innate goodness of the gay couple and their agony at being subject to such hateful and bigoted behavior. The “public” will demand action. The pastor will be brought up on charges of violating civil rights, or perhaps even of committing a hate crime. The courts will rule in favor of the gay couple.

The pastor will be fined, imprisoned or both. If his church stands by him, there will be demands the state confiscate the church’s property.

If you think that is only a paranoid fancy, then you have never been a Mormon. You have never been a Mennonite escaping from Prussia to Russia and then to North America. You have never been a Christian living in Iraq, Iran, Israel or China, and the list goes on. And you most definitely have read no history.

That may not happen in modern America, but that is the path we fear, and that is why well-meaning people have put together religious-rights laws.


TOPICS: General Discusssion; History; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: constitution; freedom; religion; rights
The end justifies the means. Whatever it takes to achieve social justice is worth it. That Constitution was over-rated anyway, right? Religion is old-fashioned. Thuggery is where it's at in today's culture;-(
1 posted on 05/03/2015 11:24:34 AM PDT by campg
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To: campg

“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever”. Hebrews 13:8 This verse says it all!

For such a time as this . . . http://www.patburt.com/


2 posted on 05/03/2015 11:46:04 AM PDT by Maudeen
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To: campg

The Emperor says you have no rights.


3 posted on 05/03/2015 4:18:09 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: TBP

But he is a anti-crusader fighting colonialism to keep the masses in Stone Age. Too bad his rein is a couple hundred years too late.


4 posted on 05/03/2015 6:37:18 PM PDT by campg
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