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News

Gay rights movement is killing religious liberty and conscience protection in America

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Obama speaks to the Human Rights Campaign
Obama speaks to the Human Rights Campaign

I wrote a couple of posts last week about how gay rights was destroying religious liberty in Canada. The first was about how Christian colleges and universities are being made illegal, the second about how parents were being prevented from opting out of gay indoctrination in public schools (schools run by the government, that the parents pay for).

But it’s not just happening in Canada, there is a lot of bad news down here as well.

Ben Shapiro, an orthodox Jew and a conservative, writes about the latest at the Daily Wire:

In the latest sign that the judiciary has gone completely off the rails, a judge has now forced the owners of ChristianMingle.com, Spark, to include same-sex matches on their website. Two gay men decided that there simply weren’t enough gay dating websites on the internet, and sued ChristianMingle.com in 2013. Now, under the settlement agreement, the webpage asks merely whether you are a man or a woman, rather than a “man seeking a woman” or a “woman seeking a man.” According to The Wall Street Journal, “Spark agreed that within two years, it would adjust other searching and profile features to give gay and lesbian singles a more tailored experience.” The terms of the settlement also open up CatholicMingle.com, AdventistSinglesConnection.com, and BlackSingles.com to same-sex searches.

[…]The lawsuit and settlement reveal one fundamental truth: for the LGBT community, acceptance and tolerance aren’t enough. They want full-scale approval of their activity from religious Americans, and they won’t stop until government shoves that approval down religious throats at point of bayonet.

This column by Dr. Michael Brown examines several relevant items in an article posted at The Stream, most of which have been discussed on this blog before.

Here’s a new one:

Sadly, rather than refuse to comply with this ungodly and unjust ruling, ChristianMingle.com has agreed to introduce same-sex searches within the next two years, with Shapiro noting that the “terms of the settlement also open upCatholicMingle.com, AdventistSinglesConnection.com, and BlackSingles.com to same-sex searches.” As he correctly states, “This is pure insanity.”

From a scriptural point of view, this is what Jesus warned about when He said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25). Unless ChristianMingle.com agreed to these terms simply to buy time, they have now sold their Christian soul in order to save their business, which is the guaranteed path to spiritual suicide.

But it gets worse.

If gay activists like Dan Savage have their way (and remember that Savage’s allies include the current president of the United States), Christians will not be allowed to hold to biblical morality in any setting, since our alleged homophobia is directly linked to a radical Muslim slaughtering gays and lesbians in a gay bar. In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, Savage wrote, “Love is the cure—love and gun control and fully funded mental-health services and zero tolerance for anti-gay and anti-trans bigotry with no exceptions for ‘religious beliefs,’ sincerely held or otherwise.

“No sanctuary for liars, no safe place for bigots, no refuge for haters.” That means “zero tolerance” for people like you and me because of our “sincerely held religious beliefs.”

In his podcast, Savage makes himself perfectly clear: It is time to make “demands” on our society, including “an end to homophobia and to transphobia and a demand for accountability for those who promote it whether they’re promoting it in a church or a mosque or a legislature” — and bear in mind that Savage and his allies characterize traditional Judeo-Christian teaching on LGBT issues to be homophobic and transphobic.

Yes, a gay activist is demanding that Christians be held accountable for believing the Bible.

In the Daily Wire article I linked above, Ben Shapiro had this to say about what comes next:

The next steps for the left include removing non-profit status for any religious institution that “discriminates” against same-sex marriage, then suing those institutions under “anti-discrimination” laws; removing accreditation from schools that refuse to teach the beauty and joy of homosexuality and transgenderism; and finally, targeting parents who homeschool by refusing their legitimacy and calling their children truant.

All of this is coming, and it’s coming soon.

We’d better start preparing the resistance. We’re already late in starting.

What I’m seeing in the church, especially among young, unmarried happy-clappy Christian women, is a complete lack of awareness of the threats outlined by Shapiro and Brown. They aren’t following the news, and they often support the secular left, for causes like universal health care (= universal abortion) and to stop “global warming”. Everything is decided based on emotions and peer approval – no Christian wants to be the “bad guy” who sticks up for the Christian worldview, and keeps informed by reading and studying. Almost nothing is being done by young Christians to prepare educationally, professionally and financially for these challenges. Almost no one is planning to have an influence, either as singles or through a carefully-planned marriage that results in influential, effective children.

Commentary

Happy Independence Day 2016!

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The Stars and Stripes
The Stars and Stripes

The Declaration of Independence

Here’s the complete text of the Declaration of Independence here.

And now let’s take a look at an article at The Federalist which talks about what the Declaration of Independence tells us about the character of America.

It says:

The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson famously wrote, was “intended to be an expression of the American mind.” Although not intended as such, it was also an expression of the American character. Woven throughout the text are insights into the minds and virtues of those Lincoln called the “once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors” who fought for the independence we still enjoy.

This aspect of the Declaration of Independence receives scant attention from scholars and citizens, yet it must be understood. The theory of government elaborated in that text presupposes the existence of citizens who know how to govern themselves and are willing to assert their rights. The American character is the unstated premise of the argument, without which the theory, though still true, doesn’t work in practice.

So, what’s the American character?

What sets us Americans apart is that we do not merely declare for liberty. We staunchly stand for it. To be an American is not only to know that you are born free, it is to have the courage to defend your freedom. This admirable aspect of the American character is evident in the fifth grievance the Declaration levels against the king.

It reads: “He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people.” The king acted as monarchs are wont to do. Our forefathers, although they were subjects, did not take his abuses passively. They resisted—with manly firmness.

Today, King George III is long gone. Our representative houses are no longer dissolved at will (although they have unconstitutionally been declared to be in recess). Our rights, however, are still encroached upon, whether by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the Environmental Protection Agency. Thankfully, courageous Americans still push back, like the Green family, who challenged Obamacare’s abortifacient mandate, or the Sacketts, who fought the EPA’s effective seizure of their property.

No charter of liberties or Constitution—not even one handed down by God himself—could ever, on its own, protect the rights of the people. James Madison, the father of our own Constitution, was not so foolish as to place his trust in mere “parchment barriers against the encroaching spirit of power.”

In Federalist No. 57, Madison takes up the question of “what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society?” His answer: “the genius of the whole system; the nature of just and constitutional laws; and above all, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America—a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it.”

The 56 men who signed our Declaration of Independence set the example for their fellow countrymen and for future generations. They did not simply proclaim the universal rights of man. They also pledged “to each other, our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” And they meant it. Twelve served as combat commanders during the Revolutionary War. Five were captured and imprisoned by the British. Seventeen lost part of their fortunes.

America is not a country for servile men and women. We not only have a right to be free, but a duty to be free. For “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” Free as we are, we have no liberty to choose despotism—even if it is sugarcoated, as it is today, with material comfort and license.

[…]Two centuries later, the American character endures, battered and bruised though it may be. It has been corroded by the Progressive faith in government, the sixties ethos of “if it feels good, do it,” and the mindlessness and vulgarity of pop culture. But we can still readily discern among many Americans the habits of mind and the virtues of a free people. For this, we should be grateful on this Fourth of July.

To love liberty means to be willing to stand up for liberty, and that can mean something as simple as 1) not voting for bigger government just because they are handing out money to you and 2) not voting for bigger government because they are letting you do immoral things.

Standing up for liberty means standing up for your own personal responsibility. It means looking primarily to yourself for earning a living. It means choosing to behave morally so that you don’t create a situation where you need the government to bail you out of your own immoral decisions with someone else’s money.

News

Ontario government-run schools deny parents opt-out from pro-gay curriculum

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Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau
Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau march in gay pride parade

Remember the curriculum that was designed by the Liberal Party child pornographer? Well, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne isn’t going to give parents any opt out from it for their children.

Life Site News explains: (H/T Tim and William)

If anyone doubts that Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government will overrule parental rights in favour of its inclusivity agenda on behalf of LGBTTIQ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirited, intersex, queer and questioning — students and parents, the evidence — literally — points clearly and abundantly to the fact that it will, and is.

And if anyone doubts that teachers in the public school system are encouraged to bring up references to LGBTTIQ issues in any and all subjects at their discretion, because equity and inclusivity is embedded in the curriculum, again, the evidence is in.

That evidence is found in the opposition factums in the Steve Tourloukis case, heard June 23 by Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Reid, and in which the Wynne Liberal government intervened on behalf of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, as did the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario.

“Requests to exempt students from the very portions of the curriculum that promote diversity, inclusivity and acceptance cannot be granted without the risk of appearing to endorse the non-acceptance of students of other races, sexual orientations, family backgrounds, gender expression and gender identities,” states the Attorney General of Ontario’s factum.

[…]“Children who are themselves LGBT, who had LGBT parents, family or friends, or who had experienced homophobic or transphobic bullying based on being perceived as LGBT, could feel less valued and accepted if the Applicant’s children left the room every time people like them or their family or friends were discussed,” stated the document, submitted by lawyers Josh Hunter and Emily Bala.

The government lawyers argued that, given “the Legislature’s pressing and substantial objective of ensuring that public schools are accepting, inclusive, and diverse,” it follows that “permitting the Applicant’s children to leave the classrooms whenever planned lessons communicate acceptance of different family backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities or gender expression would undermine that Legislative purpose.”

HWDSB lawyer Mark Zega argued much the same.

“How could the Board provide an accommodation that would forbid a teacher from stating that there is nothing wrong with same-sex marriage and allowing a child to leave class every time such a topic arises, when the Board is required to discourage homophobia in schools?”

This, he stated, “would amount to an implicit condemnation of person who have suffered prejudice and stereotyping, and who have been singled out on the basis of their sexuality.”

Christian parents are allowed (and even required by law) to pay taxes that pay the salary of the Ontario premier, the Ontario attorney general, the Ontario judges, the Ontario lawyers, the Ontario school administrators and the Ontario teachers. Their money is good enough for the Liberal Party and for the government-run public schools that serve the Liberal Party. But their human rights are not good enough for the Liberal Party. Only the human rights of the Liberal Party and their allies matter.

Let’s look at the particular case where this all came out:

Tourloukis, as readers may know, is the Hamilton dentist and father of two who asked his public school to give him advance notice when teachers would be presenting on a number of sensitive subjects, so he could decide if his children could opt out, if they risked being exposed to “false teaching” according to their Greek Orthodox faith.

These topics included, among others, “discussions or portrayals of sexual conduct that he determines to be unnatural/unhealthy (anal sex, oral sex, sadism, masochism, fetishes, bondage, etc.),” and “discussions or portrayals of homosexual/bisexual conduct and relationships and/or transgenderism as natural, healthy.”

When Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board refused his request, Tourloukis launched a legal action in 2012, asking for court declarations that he has final say over what his kids are taught in school, and that the school board’s refusal to give him advance notice violates his Charter rights.

[…]Tourloukis was informed “that all educational materials could potentially conflict with his stated objective, as equity and inclusivity principles are integrated and embedded within Ontario public education and within the Board,” noted the board’s factum (emphasis added).

The Ontario government argued the same.

If the Tourloukis children were permitted to opt out at their father’s request, they could end up “missing a substantial portion of the school year given the breadth of the Applicant’s religious objections, including in particular the fact that principles of equity and inclusive education are embedded throughout the curriculum the Board is mandated to teach to all its students” (emphasis added).

That LGBTTIQ issues could be raised in any subject is clear from the 2014 update of the Equity and Inclusive Strategy (EIE), first introduced in 2009 under then education minister Kathleen Wynne, herself a lesbian “married” to another woman.

The EIE Strategy aims to help school boards move “beyond tolerance and celebration to inclusivity and respect,” stated the Attorney General’s factum.

The updated guidelines “note that the principles of equity and inclusivity need to be reflected throughout the curriculum and learning materials so that students can ‘see themselves reflected in the curriculum’.” One example is “using texts written by gay/lesbian authors.”

As I said before, this was all done with the consent of false Christians over the last few decades – when economically illiterate “Christians” became obsessed with feelings and peer approval to the point where they were willing to vote to expand a secular leftist government in order to get free health care – which now means free sex changes, free IVF, free birth control, free abortions, etc. This was more important to Canadian “Christians” than their own freedom of conscience and religious liberty. In Canada, Christianity is shallow, anti-intellectual and disconnected from practical realities.

If you want to know how things will go in the United States, you should look north to Canada. They are about 5-10 years ahead of us. It’s very important for Christians to take note of what gay activists and their allies in secular leftist parties like the Liberal Party or the Democrat Party are doing to put gay rights above religious liberty rights.