Why are conservatives back-peddling on slam-dunk issues like freedom of religion? Because we are being challenged on a core question which we refuse to directly address.
And here it is: what about homosexual behavior? Good, evil, or neutral?
The answer is that homosexuality is always wrong. Objective reasoning shows us that skin color is unchangeable and that racial discrimination is unjust. We can in the same way objectively reason that same sex "marriage" is indefensible because homosexual conduct itself is disordered for human beings.
Didn't Lawrence v Texas settle some of this? Not for those who still use truth as a benchmark.
We aren't fighting to protect marriage because the term and tradition are important. Let's be honest that the only reason for this dispute is because people want to engage in anatomically-challenged behavior that is observably unnatural, medically risky, improper as an example for children, and changeable.
And it's a behavior that God calls sin. There is no other biblical description of homosexuality except always and only, a big taboo.
So in view of marriage law or public accommodations, could the immorality of homosexuality be a rationale for refusing to honor same sex nuptials? Absolutely, it should be. There are multiple grounds including but not limited to religious faith. In most states where this was a dispute - New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois --- same sex marriage was not even legal, and the couples had other options.
How in the world do judges rule against photographers, bakers, and bed and breakfast owners whose religious convictions also happen to uphold state law? Only in a time of universal deceit, and their failure to adhere to law is evidence their arguments are built on sand.
It's time to pull the curtain on this wizard, folks. Homosexuality itself is wrong.
The constructed identity of being "gay" is harmful and should not be considered a worthy defense in light of reality. The evidence clearly points to the truth that everyone is intrinsically a heterosexual.
We need to have the guts to stand up and say so. Our defense should not be because we Christians just hope to somehow preserve narrow rights over here in our holy huddle.
It's because homosexuality is unnatural and unnecessary and the harm its advocacy is doing to our culture is apparent to anyone with half a brain, even atheists. Confusion abounds only because we won't state the obvious.
And this doesn't even begin to cover the lunacy of "transgendered" behavior.
Just as we understand race to be a neutral, unchanging characteristic, rational thought arrives at the conclusion that homosexuality is neither. This recognition just confirms facts and is not hateful but helpful to others.
Pull back this curtain. Expose the truth, because it's a positive one.
Christian business owners can in good conscience decide to serve people they perceive might be homosexual, if a "wedding" isn't in play, by selling them goods or services just as Jesus ate with people He knew were sinners, because He was not condoning their sin through His actions. He was just eating. He did not help prostitutes solicit new customers in the streets, He did not assist tax collectors in cheating new clients, He did not say to the woman caught in adultery, "Hey, hon, is there another married guy I can fix you up with?"
No, it was only a meal, and we too must be "in the world" in this way, available to help people in need, while speaking out against sin.
Yet if a business owner is concerned about the perceived endorsement of certain behaviors, then it's okay to refuse service. I'm remembering the bar owner in Portland who tried to discourage a group of transvestite men from hanging out in his bar, for instance. He had complaints from other customers, but he was fined $400,000 when the men - yes, they are MEN - sued him. Was he justified in wanting their disordered behavior evicted from his establishment, even if not on religious grounds? Of course he was.
It's the enabling and confirmation of sin that's the line of discernment, but even beyond that, we have the obligation as believers to clarify to anyone who asks the reason for the hope that is in us. The hope we stand on includes the recognition of God as Creator, that Jesus was and is God. He made us distinctly male and female, and God is the One who defines sin. And in such truths humans can flourish, find rest and security, be fruitful and multiply, and trust that God has given us boundaries that lead to abundant life, as He determines.
Far from mean or hateful, this is life-giving, life-extending and God-honoring. Nor is it an offense to American jurisprudence, which presumes to be grounded in the recognition of certain base-line truths.
It is not inequality to reject homosexuality, because no creature is made to engage in these relations, and if they find they want to, it's their problem and it's a disorder. We must all bear with each other as we humans struggle against iniquity, but it's a grave sin in itself to call evil good and to enable a fellow human to walk rebelliously away from God. It is a sin worthy of drowning, Jesus told us, to teach sin to children as we are doing in many schools now by our endorsement of "LGBT" behaviors, as well as in the newly-depraved Boy Scouts. God help us.
The objective fact of racial equality is easy to see. Once America was challenged to embrace this truth and reject an unbiblical course, it eventually became a no-brainer, and most churches have since repented for teaching something unscriptural from the outset.
Yet we are racing down another unbiblical road. Homosexuality is still wrong, still a sin, even if famous people engage in it, even if well-positioned public advocates mount their Orwellian defense. These are the modern day slave-holders, denying basic human realities and manipulating truth for gain while shaking their fists in the face of the Almighty. They are deeply corrupted rebels.
This corruption explains the lengths to which they will suddenly go to silence and defame believers. It explains the retaliation, the unjust rulings, the breach of public trust, the smear campaigns. Spiteful denial of basic rights,like allowing a bakery to stay in business, is now considered noble. No, it's tyranny and will continue to escalate and seem terribly confusing, until we who used to see the truth clear the fog from our brains.
Homosexuality is wrong. It's really quite simple.
