This country came into being because some brave men and women wanted freedoms, mainly religious freedoms, but more freedoms in general than they had in England. They went through a lot, sacrificed much, and many gave the ultimate - their lives - to secure freedoms we have held dear for a couple of hundred years. For the most part, these were Christian men and women going against the grain, going against the government and law of the land. What of this same logic had been theirs? That since they were Christians, they had no rights, so they should just do what the government said to do? If this logic had applied down through the ages, Christianity would cease to exist. A bold and insane claim? Not really. Think about it:
If you truly believe Christians do not have any rights, and we lived that out, we would be easy targets of robbery, rape, and murder. A man comes in and wants to rape your wife or daughter..... if we have no rights, then he is free to do so, If someone wants the money in your checking account, you have to let them have it, for you have no rights as a Christian. They want to beat you up and even kill you, you have no right to defend yourself but must let them do it. Christians would eventually die out from abuse and lack of money and food.
Those examples sound extreme and most would say they have nothing to do with gay weddings, but they do. If you make the bold statement that a Christian has no rights in these cases - no right to stand up for what they believe, no right to refuse to be involved in a wedding of two people committing an abomination in God's sight - then you must carry that through. And the writer of the article I read said we have no rights. He didn't specifically say just in these cases involving gay weddings, though that was his end game with making the point. That since we are to deny ourselves, we have no right to turn down involvement in a gay wedding.
If the electric or phone company makes a mistake on our bill, any of us would call and have it taken care of. If someone crashes into our car, we will take the measures needed to make sure our car is fixed and we are not charged or faulted for something that was not our fault. If we are falsely accused of a crime, we will do all we can to clear our name, even if it means securing a lawyer. And it has been this way since the beginning of time. Even Christians have rights, and sometimes you have to stand up for your rights.
Back in the days of the early church, the apostles were jailed, beaten, threatened, and told not to preach. They kept doing it, even though those in positions of power and government ordered them not to. They kept boldly defying the law and doing what they felt was right. Paul on at least one occasion, appealed to his rights as a Roman citizen. He is held up in Christendom next to Jesus. If he felt it right and necessary to appeal to the rights that he had, how can anyone dare suggest that we have no right to stand up to the authorities for OUR rights?
There have been times throughout history that Christians were ordered to do things contrary to what they believed. Often, it would have just required silence and no actual participation in something that violated their beliefs, but many refused and paid a price. Should we be any different? The gay agenda is being forced on us and the they use words like discrimination, homophobia, and hatred to swing people their way and intimidate Christians to do what others have tried to do down the ages: shut up and do what the government and status quo wants. The church has stood up to tyrants, kings, dictators, sin of all kinds, and outright persecution, yet many think that homosexuality is the exception and we should lay aside our rights, our beliefs, convictions, and what God's Word has always said on the subject. As I said in a former post, homosexuality is not special or an exception. Yes, we will offend people by standing up to it. Yes, we will face hatred and persecution for not falling blindly in with what they want, but that has happened to Christians down through the ages. The Gospel has always offended. Christians have always offended and angered those who do not serve God, whether it be presidents, kings, gay people, or other sinners.
And yet, for this one sin, we are expected to be different. Many in the church expect all Christians to toss aside what the Bible says, and embrace gay people and all they stand for and all they want. They want us to bake the cake, print the t-shirt, photograph the wedding, boycott anyone who dares stand against gay marriage and the gay agenda.
We will never win any sinner by embracing their sin, by being silent, by stepping aside and letting them trample our rights under their feet and make a mockery of God's Word and God's institution of marriage. We will never win them by being spineless cowards, by tossing aside our rights and going with the program.
I made a statement on Facebook that I am 100% positive about: That if our Constitution were being drafted today, it would never pass in its current form. All of the freedoms would either not be in it, or they would have exceptions. In its current form, too many would fear it might offend someone or discriminate. It would never favor Christians, as we are the only ones who can be discriminated against.
Christians are the only ones standing in the way of total depravity in this country, and we are hated for it. If we cave to same-sex marriage and the gay agenda today, it will be something else tomorrow as we continue down the slippery moral slope we are on, If we give up our rights in the face of the pro-gay crowd today, we will be expected to give them up tomorrow when a new moral issue faces us.
We need to love gay people. We need to reach out to them, share the Gospel, befriend them....... but we should never OK their lifestyle or approve in any way of it or their marriages, nor should we toss aside our rights and let theirs trump ours.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
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