Friday, July 17, 2015

SCOTUS Decision Gives a Green Light to Push for Closet Christians

The recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to establish same-sex marriage as a right, does not, by itself signal a dramatic change in the struggle between Christians and the LGBT community.  The real sign of imminent danger lies in the words of the majority opinion, both in what is said, and what is not said.

"Finally, it must be emphasized that religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned. The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered. The same is true of those who oppose same-sex marriage for other reasons."
Notice first, the words of protection for Christians that are used:  "advocate" and "teach."  What is not said is that they "exercise" those beliefs.

I'm not the only one who noticed this dangerous omission by the majority.  A recent article in The Deseret News notes:
Chief Justice John Roberts said the majority's view offers "no comfort" to people of faith when contemplating the further religious liberty issues bound to arise from the ruling, saying that, "ominously," Kennedy's opinion doesn't discuss free exercise protections for groups or individuals.
What is the importance of 'exercise' versus teaching and advocating?  It means simply that you can still say you don't support same-sex marriage, but you cannot act on those beliefs.  If you make wedding cakes, regardless of how you believe, you won't have a choice in whether or not your edible sculpture, crafted to glorify the union of two lives, is used to glorify hetero-sexual marriage, or not.

The same is true of a lot of other wedding-related business.  Now, the amoral capitalist would just shout for joy at the recent SCOTUS ruling because it means his prospective client base just expanded dramatically.  But, contrary to media stereotypes, capitalism is not a synonym for being amoral.  In fact the vast majority of business owners I have met have very strong moral codes.

Many of these business owners really love their work.  It is their passion that helps power their success.  And, if they are forced to use their work to glorify a behavior they believe is immoral, it will sour them on their work and take their heart out of it.

The SCOTUS majority would have us believe that the media stereotype is reality and that business is divorced from religion and morality.

Christians know that you cannot divorce any part of your life from your religion or morality.  Being a Christian means that you not only believe, but you exercise your beliefs, because God will judge us for ALL our deeds, our words, and even our thoughts, and how those aligned with what we know to be right.  In spite of The Godfather and The Sopranos, you cannot be amoral in your business and still be right with God.

Some will argue with me and say, "So what if SCOTUS opened the door for people to use the force of law to make people support same-sex marriage?  No reasonable LGBT proponent will do that."

Douglas Laycock, a law professor at the University of Virginia who has argued religious freedom cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, said there has been "an appalling lack of tolerance on both sides" of the marriage debate, first among opponents who believed they could outlaw same-sex weddings, and now from those supporting the changes.

He goes on to say, "... the gay-rights side ... are now intent on crushing the rights of dissenters."

To put it another way, now that the 'shoe is on the other foot' extremists in the LGBT community wants to shove Christians into the same closet that they came out of.  The closet where it is not seen or spoken of in the public square.

Anyone who says that members of the LGBT community won't push for this is blind to certain lessons about human behavior evident in human history.

The Puritans, after fleeing state-sponsored religious persecution in Europe promptly established laws which not only established their own rights of worship, but restricted the rights of worship of those who were not in their sect.

In this country, many in the black community want to punish whites for race-based discrimination in the past by allowing a form of race-based discrimination going the other direction.  They have even managed to redefine racism in some textbooks.  They have gone from the dictionary definition of racism (which is color blind) to one that defines racism as discrimination of whites against blacks.

Here is the dictionary definition of racism:
belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others. 
a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such doctrine; discrimination.
hatred
 or intolerance of another race or other races.
In contrast with that definition consider this: 
Only white people can be racist, because only white people have institutional power.
 http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2009/09/wonder-how-to-define-racism.html

And do you recall that Obama's former Attorney General, Eric Holder  while still in office said, "White people can be victims of racial injustice because they haven't suffered enough."  Meaning that the top law enforcement officer in the country wasn't willing to enforce the laws of the land if he didn't like the color of the plaintiffs, until white folks have been made to suffer a lot of discrimination and racial oppression.  Apparently, he didn't agree with Dr. Martin Luther King when he said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."  So, he thinks white people should be made to suffer the way blacks suffered from racism.  That sounds to me a lot like 'putting the shoe on the other foot.'

A Google search for "punish whites for racism" today yields more than 22 million hits.

In nearly every case of history where an oppressed minority managed to gain the upper hand, the result was the minority oppressing the majority in the exact same manner as they had themselves suffered. That is human nature.

Right now, the LGBT community if feeling that they have been an oppressed minority.  Now that SCOTUS has established their behavior as a right, the probability is almost a certainty that many of them will seek to put their opponents into the closet that they themselves came out of not so long ago.

In fact, some accounts I have recently read show that LGBT leadership is planning exactly that.  We have entered a time when instead of "live and let live", minority groups are not content with winning their rights, they want to exterminate the opposition.  What could breed such relentless antipathy in the hearts of people who claim to be all about love and freedom?  To my view, it can only be the subtle, soul-twisting influence of Lucifer, leading them defense of their own freedoms into attacks on the freedoms of others.

I think this SCOTUS decision marks the beginning of a bloody retreat from the public square by Christians in the US.


Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.

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