Homosexual Rights Are Killing Religious Freedom
by Nathan A. Cherry, 01/30/2012
Martinsburg, WV – Quite often I hear the retort “how does allowing homosexuals to marry hurt you?” Or someone will ponder how homosexual rights infringe on my rights. At this point I would think such queries are naïve and misplaced, but allow me to address the issue and show concretely how homosexual rights is a threat to the religious and conscience convictions of millions of Americans.
Let’s take a look at just three examples of how the religious convictions of citizens were violated in light of political correctness. First is the case of a 15 year old high school student, Brandon Wegner, whose article using Scripture to oppose homosexual adoption was censored by school officials. A recent report on the incident shares details:
Brandon quoted several verses from the Bible regarding homosexuality. After Brandon wrote this article he was pulled into hours of meetings with school administrators and staff, without his parents’ knowledge. This caused him to miss exam preparation classes and at least one exam. Brandon was hauled before the superintendent on charges that he had violated the school’s bullying policy. Superintendent Todd Carlson told him that the column ‘went against the bullying policy,’ and asked him if he ‘regretted’ writing it. When Mr. Wegner stated that he did not regret writing it, and that he stood behind his beliefs, Superintendent Carlson told him that he ‘had got to be one of the most ignorant kids to try to argue with him about this topic,’ that ‘we have the power to suspend you if we want to’ and that the column had ‘personally offended me, so I know you offended other people!’”
I’d like to tell the “offended” Todd Carlson that I am personally offended by his bullying of a student and would appreciate if he resign; immediately. (By the way, click here if you feel inclined to send Mr. Carlson an email letting him know how you feel.)
Maybe you heard about Rabbi Ralbag the chief rabbi of Amsterdam. He was suspended from his position after signing an orthodox Jewish declaration stating that homosexuality is a treatable condition; the suspension came from his own Orthodox Jewish community! In essence, Rabbi Ralbag signed a declaration stating the Orthodox Jewish position on homosexuality – according to the Torah – and was suspended for it. This report carries some of the details:
“The declaration…states that, ‘The Torah makes a clear statement that homosexuality is not an acceptable lifestyle or a genuine identity by severely prohibiting its conduct…Same-sex attractions can be modified and healed…Behaviors are changeable.’ Rabbi Ralbag told The Jerusalem Post he found it ‘scandalous that a chief rabbi cannot state the Torah viewpoint for his community without being penalized.’ And he described his suspension as “intolerant on the part of the Jewish community – it is to deny the community’s rabbi the right to express the halachic [Jewish legal] standpoint. This is unheard of.’”
Evidently free speech and freedom of religion only apply when they don’t interfere with homosexual rights because, obviously, the rights of homosexuals trump all other rights. Intolerance then becomes acceptable even though the people being intolerant (homosexuals) are asking everyone else for our tolerance.
How about some wide-spread intolerance of religious rights from our own president? Recently the Obama administration declared that rather than allow religious medical providers to choose whether or not to offer contraceptives and other birth control items, they had just one year to comply with rules within Obamacare and begin offering them regardless of religious objections. The new law is explained in a recent blog post:
“This mandate drives up health care costs and is perniciously targeted at religious providers, who selflessly and compassionately serve the poorest and most vulnerable…Under this rule, within a year, religiously affiliated medical providers would have to fire and refuse to treat persons of other faiths in order to uphold their own deeply held beliefs — or be forced …to close their doors rather than violate tents of their religion. This is forced discrimination. This is wrong. No American should be forced to choose between their faith and their job.”
What we are seeing is the religious freedoms of millions of Americans being systematically stripped away in favor of a liberal social and political agenda. Lawmakers are signaling that Christians’ freedom to express their deeply held view of homosexuality is not as important as not offending homosexuals; that being allowed not to offer contraception and abortifacients is not as important as making sure birth control is available at every corner store. In choosing to affirm and support one group’s rights rather than seeking to allow diverse views to find mutual tolerance and acceptance of their differences.
And, to be honest, it is catering to less than 3% of the American population rather than supporting the more than 100 million (40%) Americans that hold to these religious beliefs (but that’s another story).
Recently an Oxford professor made news with his claim that American lawmakers are “are putting equality issues before the right to religious freedom.” Roger Trigg studied cases in the UK, US, Canada and Europe before concluding that religious freedom was in jeopardy. He went on to make a common sense statement that seems to elude many in the US right now:
“There should not be a hierarchy of rights, but it should be possible to take account of all of them in some way. ‘Reasonable accommodation’ ought to be the standard.”
America was founded upon the principle that religion would never be interfered with by the government. That freedom to worship, express religious beliefs, and live according to the tenets of one’s faith would never be infringed upon. Unfortunately, thanks to a liberal social agenda and the apathy among people of faith we are now seeing our very basic rights as Americans endangered.
If the apathy continues I believe we will see the day when we talk about religious freedom in past tense. If Christians continue to allow religious freedom to be infringed there will come a day when it is gone entirely; this starts at the pulpit. America needs men and women of God to stand up and boldly refuse to allow special interests, liberal agendas, or anyone else to tell us which of our convictions we can and cannot hold to.
We need Daniel’s, Nehemiah’s and Esther’s that will boldly make requests of lawmakers and rulers on behalf of God’s people. Men and women raised up “for such a time as this.”
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