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The Silencing of the Lambs:
Gay Gestapo Scores An Ominous Victory In Arizona
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's veto of
much-needed revisions to the state's Religious Freedom Restoration
Act (SB 1062) should chill the blood of every American citizen who
understands the fundamental importance of religious liberty and
freedom of conscience.
The law that was in place for 15 years, exists
in 18 states, and is modeled on the Federal Religious Freedom
Restoration Act, simply requires the government to show a
"compelling state interest" before infringing on the
religious freedom of its citizens. SB 1062 only
clarified the existing law in two minor respects. It would have
given religious business owners the same protections as
individuals and would have protected individuals from lawsuits from
other private individuals, not just the government. That
was it.
And in fact, as religious freedom struggles
under increasing assaults, there is a profound need for greater
religious freedom protections like SB 1062. One marker is the
growing governmental trend to coerce businesses to participate in gay
weddings and commitment ceremonies. A New Mexico photographer,
a Washington State florist, and an Oregon baker have all been sued or
dragged before their state human rights commission simply because
they refused to violate their deeply-held biblical religious
beliefs about marriage.
As you can see, the primary issue at stake here
is actually religious freedom, not gay rights. Should the
government have the power to coerce individuals to violate their
religious conscience? No. In fact, the Arizona law, which
does not mention homosexuality, protects religious freedom from all
challengers, not just anti-religious gay legal activists. Yet
the media lied, calling the law "anti-gay." And,
unfortunately, media propaganda has been very compelling, convincing
millions of thoughtless Americans that gay is the new black. If
you disagree, you are a homophobic bigot!
Sadly, many politicians, who had just voted in
favor of the bill, withered in their support under the extreme duress
of the media's hysterical misinformation campaign. Apparently
the straw that broke Jan Brewer's back and led to her veto of the
religious freedom improvements was the NFL's threat to pull the Super
Bowl from Arizona. Politicians were not the only persons pressured.
An Arizona business owner and his children received vile death
threats because they publicly supported the bill.
Tammy Bruce, a conservative gay commentator
writing in a Washington Times editorial, expressed her support
for Arizona's religious freedom bill and her alarm at how houses of
worship are now vulnerable to the "Gay Gestapo."
Bruce argued that SB 1062 "embodied the values every American
civil rights movement stood for: the freedom to live our lives
without being punished for who we are." She called out the
left for its effort "to make faith in the public square illegal
and dangerous" by employing a strategy "to condition the
public into automatically equating faith with bigotry."
Bruce points out that "[F]reedom of conscience is squashed under
the jackboot of liberals, all in the Orwellian name of "equality
and fairness." Here we are dealing with not just forcing someone
to do something for you, but forcing them in the process to violate a
sacrament of their faith as well."
True tolerance means that religious people in
America should be free to hold religious beliefs, practice their
faith, express their beliefs in the marketplace of ideas, and live
their lives freely without being called names, marginalized, or
driven from business. Yet, as I predicted 20 years ago, the
radical gay '"rights" movement, then clamoring for
tolerance as an alternative lifestyle, would one day become the
aggressively intolerant destroyers of religious freedom once they
gained power and control over the means of cultural thought
dissemination. Unfortunately, we have arrived at that
day. The thought police are here.
What happened in Arizona is vitally important
and should correctly be viewed as an example of a tipping point in
the fight to defend and preserve religious freedom. Religious
freedom is the source and foundation of all other freedoms we enjoy
as citizens. If we lose religious freedom we are well on our
way to losing all other freedoms and authentic God-given civil
rights.
Perhaps the most deeply disappointing thing is
that, just like the majority of the Lutheran pastors in pre-World War
II Germany, so many leaders of the lambs have been silenced. I
submit that the most ominous development is the cowardly caving of so
many Christian leaders to the existential threat of the "Gay
Gestapo." There is no dignity, honor, or eternal reward in
fearing men more than we fear God. The handwriting is on the
wall. They are coming for your flock and for your pulpit.
What will you do?
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California "Bathroom
Bill" Repeal Falls Short, But Effort Continues
As of the end of February, petitions to repeal
what has become known as the "Bathroom Bill" had been
reviewed by county officials, and the California Secretary of State
reported that 487,484 signatures were valid - 17,276 short of the
504,760 needed to qualify the referendum for the November ballot.
Proponents of AB 1266 (which allows children to gender
self-identify, use bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex,
and participate on opposite gender sports teams) were celebrating
while opponents were evaluating what could have been done to gain the
relatively small number of signatures needed.
The Privacy for All Students Coalition (PFAS)
is currently challenging those results to determine why more than
131,000 signatures of the 620,000 raw signatures collected were
rejected. They remain confident that at least the number
needed to qualify (17,276 of 131,000) will be found to actually be
valid when the county results are reviewed. PFAS' press release
stated, "We knew that we would have to fight to have every valid
signature counted." Kevin Snider, attorney for Pacific
Justice Institute, which is assisting the referendum effort, said,
"Many counties set a very high threshold to declare a signature
valid. But the courts have repeatedly set a standard that is much
friendlier to the voter offering his or her signature." The
referendum proponents will have to ask judges to step in to assure
that all valid signatures are counted.
So, does AB 1266 now go into effect? While the
claim will be made that the bill will take effect because the
threshold was not met with the certified results, under the law
proponents have a 21-day period to challenge those results. The
process to review the county results has already begun.
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Calling All Christian
Leaders: When the "Political" Infringes on the
"Biblical" Christians Must Engage
If there is one word I would ban from
Christendom's vocabulary when discussing whether to address
the challenging social moral issues of our day, it would be the term
"political." I have often heard Christian leaders say
things like, "Oh, we don't discuss 'political' issues in our
church; we don't want to be divisive or offend anyone."
I recently gently admonished a church elder
when he recited a similar mantra to me, "These issues were
'biblical' issues for thousands of years before they became
'political' issues quite recently in our culture. The primary
reason they are 'political' issues today is because our culture's
values have been turned upside down, but that doesn't mean they are
not also biblical issues the church ought to address."
Simply relabeling biblical issues 'political' is not a valid basis
for the church's decision to ignore them, is it? Yet that is
exactly what has happened.
I submit that, sadly, many evangelical pastors
have quite intentionally mislabeled many clearly biblical issues
'political' so they can conveniently avoid dealing with them from the
pulpit. I can't tell you how many watered-down sermons I have heard
over the past 20 years where pastors have side-stepped, glossed over,
and even contradicted clear biblical moral teaching in important
areas like marriage, divorce, abortion, sexual purity, homosexuality,
etc. Why?
First, they compromise because of extreme
social pressure and fear. Modern culture is very powerfully
attempting to squeeze everything and everyone into its insidiously
pagan mold, including our churches and our pastors. And I
believe that, rather than resisting this dark pressure, boldly and
courageously telling the culture "where to get off," and
preaching the full truth-the full counsel of God-pastors are far too
often fearfully and shamefully allowing our godless culture to
dictate to them what they do preach and don't preach from our pulpits
today. As my good friend Pastor Jim Garlow recently said,
"We need pastors who fear no one but the Lord and who speak
nothing but the truth." Evil prevails when good men do
nothing.
Second, we have adopted an unbiblical view of
love. Under the sway of a diluted and distorted vision of
love" we have created a false idol of being "nice" at
all costs. We have lost the ability to winsomely speak the
truth in love (Eph. 4:15) to an increasingly truthless culture.
Yet, quite ironically, in the name of love we are actually being
profoundly unloving. And it is precisely true Christian love
that we actually sacrificed-it is deeply unloving to not give
someone the whole truth. In fact, I believe that withholding truth
from others is actually quite mean, if not hateful.
Thus, we are increasingly hearing watered-down,
compromised, and powerless Gospels. And, until our Christian
leaders start fearing God more than they fear man, it will only get
worse. We have lowered the bar so far in many evangelical
churches that at least one end of the bar is dragging on the
ground.
I believe the answer is simple. We must
biblically repent of our moral and spiritual weakness and compromise
and, fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit again, start preaching
the full counsel of God-even the hard parts-especially the hard
parts! As I recently told a group of pastors, we must fight
against all forms of spiritual compromise and return to a high view
of God and a high view of the authority of the Word of God.
Until we do, the clearly "biblical" will continue to be
falsely relabeled and excluded as "political." And a
culture and people that desperately need to understand and experience
both the holiness of God and the love of God will
continue to suffer the consequences.
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A New Mexico
photographer, a Washington State florist, and an Oregon baker have
all been sued or dragged before their state human rights commission
simply because they refused to violate their deeply-held
biblical religious beliefs about marriage.
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"[F]reedom
of conscience is squashed under the jackboot of liberals, all in the
Orwellian name of "equality and fairness." Here we are
dealing with not just forcing someone to do something for you, but
forcing them in the process to violate a sacrament of their faith as
well."
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True tolerance means that
religious people in America should be free to hold religious beliefs,
practice their faith, express their beliefs in the marketplace of
ideas, and live their lives freely without being called names,
marginalized, or driven from business.
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The handwriting is on the
wall. They are coming for your flock and for your pulpit.
What will you do?
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Yoga, Purely Physical or is it
Religious?
presentation at Horizon Christian
Fellowship (2nd video listed).
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Click here to support the Sedlock v. Baird legal defense fund to help
cover appeal costs to keep yoga out of the public schools.
Pray for favor as the appeal
moves forward and for spiritual protection for all involved!
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Get
your copy of NCLP's popular free non-partisan Voter's Guide!
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"We knew that we would have
to fight to have every valid signature counted."
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If there is one word I would ban from Christendom's
vocabulary when discussing whether to address the
challenging social moral issues of our day, it would be the term
"political."
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I can't
tell you how many watered-down sermons I have heard over the past 20
years where pastors have side-stepped, glossed over, and even
contradicted clear biblical moral teaching in important areas
like marriage, divorce, abortion, sexual purity, homosexuality,
etc. Why?
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By God's
favor and grace, requests for the NCLP's powerful booklet for pastors continue to pour
in from all over the U.S.A.!
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Modern culture is very powerfully attempting to
squeeze everything and everyone into its insidiously pagan mold,
including our churches and our pastors.
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"We need
pastors who fear no one but the Lord and who speak nothing but the
truth."
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Under the sway of a diluted and distorted vision of
"love" we have created a false idol of being
"nice" at all costs. We have lost the ability to
winsomely speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) to an increasingly
truthless culture.
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We have lowered the bar so far in many evangelical
churches that at least one end of the bar is dragging on the
ground.
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We must biblically repent of our moral and
spiritual weakness and compromise and, fueled by the power of the
Holy Spirit again, start preaching the full counsel of God-even the
hard parts-especially the hard parts!
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