If I had to pick a “core value”, something that was the most important to me, it would be religious liberty. I don’t want my decisions about how to live as a consistent Christian to be influenced by secular left fascists. Using force to silence, coerce, threaten or harm Christians so that they stop behaving as Christians is the worst moral crime.

Let’s start with the facts from the Christian Post:

A hockey player for the Philadelphia Flyers refused to participate in his team’s LGBT pride night commemoration on Tuesday because he said he needs to “stay true to his religion” as an Orthodox Christian.

Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov willingly sat out as his team members engaged in pregame warmups and a pride celebration, which was part of the team’s effort to show solidarity with the LGBT community.

Pride-related decor and lighting were visible at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The Flyers could be seen on the ice for warmups adorned by rainbow jerseys with hockey sticks in hand decorated with rainbow tape.

Although Provorov didn’t participate in the pride festivities, he joined his team members on the ice after the warmups and played against the Anaheim Ducks, a game in which the Flyers won 5-2.

“I respect everybody, and I respect everybody’s choices,” Provorov, a Russian Orthodox Christian, told reporters after the game. “My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

The hockey club made a statement saying how committed they were to “inclusivity”. It’s the same thing I heard for years working for big IT companies. They love inclusivity, but they drop the hammer on anyone who doesn’t agree with their secular left dogma. They don’t include followers of Jesus. Followers of Jesus believe what Jesus taught about sex and marriage. Premarital chastity. Monogamy. Fidelity. Permanence. Male-female marriage. The inclusive crowd thinks Jesus was wrong about all of that. They know what they are talking about, but Jesus was stupid. He didn’t know what he was talking about.

So here is what I want to say about this. First, there was only one hockey player on that hockey club who is in fellowship with God. The rest of them are not. Only one of those players sided with God against the mob.

What else is the Christian life except obedience to God that causes non-Christians to hate you and persecute you? The essential practice of Christianity is imitating Christ in his suffering and enduring persecution because he put obedience to God above pleasing people who do not obey God. Christianity is not about “love” as the world defines “love”. Christianity is not concerned about accepting and affirming anyone and any behavior so that they will like you. Christianity is about loving God. And loving God means obeying God, and defending God against people who disagree with God.

Right now, I am tracking a 4-part story (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) about a pair of male gay activists who adopted two children who grew up in a home with drug addict parents. Watch this news report on Fox News to see what they are accused of doing with those children. (Viewer discretion is advised!)

This is what Christianity opposes. But no one on the secular left opposes this behavior. They affirm gay activism. They want to be inclusive of gay activists. The secular leftist agenda sides with gay activists 100% of the time, and they oppose Christians 100% of the time. Letting reckless, irresponsible, selfish adults abuse (and abort) children is literally the core belief of the secular left. They don’t care about children, they want to punish Christians who speak out against adult selfishness.