THE PENDING LEGISLATION CALLED THE EQUALITY ACT PLACES LGBTQ “RIGHTS” AT ODDS WITH RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, CONVICTION AND PERSONAL CONSCIENCE YET NO REAL STAND WAS TAKEN AGAINST IT BY EVANGELCIAL LEADERS. MANY WORKED TO SOFTEN CONVICTIONAL RESISTANCE TO IT BY PUSHING SOGI AND “INCLUSION”.
Rev Thomas Littleton
2/25/2021
You might be a bystander in the world of LGBTQ rights but no one lives in a realm unaffected by it. For people who identify as LGBTQ, the idea of the “full equality” giving sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) federal /legal/ Constitutional protections as a civil right on par with race, religion, and gender- this pending legislation appears to be reason to celebrate. However if all concerned with human rights were to look honestly at the global origins and rippling effects of this bold new frontier which redefines what it means to be human … we would all be VERY AFFRAID.
REALITY AWAITS
Americans in particular cannot grasp the immediate and long range impact on personal Constitutional rights, health care, religious liberty, freedom of speech etc. But all should find suspect the motives of progressives who are pushing this sweeping legislation. For the LGBTQ community “buyers remorse” certainly awaits.
SOGI -THE ILLOGICAL LEGAL UNREALITY
Sexual Orientation makes the case that people are born with unchanging sexual orientation toward heterosexual or homosexual or something along the LGB spectrum even though their is no proof of a gay gene. S.O. is “inborn and does not change”.
At the Same time – Gender Identity asserts that biological gender is separate from identity and therefore G.I. is fluid/ non binary and a person experiencing “Gender Dysphoria ” needs to be able to reconcile their physical presentation or public identity with their subjective feelings about their gender. This includes choosing their preferred personal pronouns and even legal government identifications to include subjective and even changing gender identities.
Non Discrimination law is then being -defined- fixed-practiced and enforced around SOGI via Equality Act legislation once it becomes part of the language of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
THINK ON THAT !
No one wins and EVERYONE loses when progressive global governments are empowered to redefine humanity /human rights/ and enforce false science and subjective identity. But this is where we are in human history.
LGBTQ/ SOGI ORIGINS
The Yogyakarta Principles
“In 2006, in response to well-documented patterns of abuse, a distinguished group of international human rights experts met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia to outline a set of international principles relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. The result was the Yogyakarta Principles: a universal guide to human rights which affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfil that precious birthright.”
WHO WINS?
Malthusians and human exterminators!
In the realm of human rights and civil rights – no set of goals has ever offered to turn all established metrics and standards on their heads more that the pro LGBTQ “Equality Act”. The combined legal narrative of a fixed “Sexual Orientation” (SO) and fluidification of biological gender into subjective/ non- binary “Gender Identity ” makes for some of the most sweeping efforts in human history to draft binding legal and nondiscrimination laws at the Constitutional level based upon unproven science and subjective feelings.
THE MISGUIDED CHURCH RESPONSE
PREACHING CHANGE AND INCLUSION WHILE FORSAKING BIBLICAL HOPE FOR TRANSFORMATION
EVANGELICAL CHANGE EFFORTS-SOFTENING UP RESISTANCE ,PREACHING INCLUSION FOR DECADES.
NOTE: True Christians do not “hate gay people ” or deny science. Christians understand that the issue of “orientation” is at the heart of human need. We are all oriented to sin, including sexual sin as defined by the Bible. We all need hope and help and change in our orientation toward sin. That hope and transformation comes through Repentance and Faith in the death and rising from the dead of Jesus. Holding faithful to this hope for all people is at the core of Christian faith. It really is this simple. We can all be changed and restored to fellowship with the God who made us and enabled by His grace to live as He made us to live with the future hope of eternity in His presence. That is the Gospel. Changed Lives and Freedom from Sin, setting captives FREE is Jesus mission.
2nd Corinthians 5
17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
JESUS DOES NOT CHANGE BUT THE CHURCH IS ATTEMPTING TO
Undeniably homosexual “inclusion” in Christian faith has been a decades long effort by activist in denominations and churches. Entire movements have pushed through the agenda of inclusion and without fail those movements have declined. Activist organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) have moved from attacking the church and Christian conviction like WITH their 2007 campaign “For the Bible Tells Me So” – to outright organized seduction in the 2014 “Project One America” (POA) complete with a carefully crafted “Christian Conversation Guide”
BUT activism from outside the church has not been the only effort underway.
Evangelical leaders like Tim Keller and D. A. Carson adopted the SOGI ideology for their politically progressive , theologically emergent movement called The Gospel Coalition (TGC) in 2010.
By Fall of 2014 Southern Baptist leaders Albert Mohler and Russell Moore (who are part of Kellers TGC) promoted a national conference apologizing for “being wrong about sexual orientation” and welcomed activist from HRC and dozens of other activist organizations to attend AND the have private meetings with Baptist leaders behind closed doors.
(NOTE :This writer met with HRC leaders bringing $8.5 million in our state with POA to offer reasoned resistance to the movement that Christian faith should not be subjected to forced compliance with cultural social change movements and massive outside funding. This author remains in a posture that activism and modern psychological trends do not alter the Word of God and cannot be allowed to remove the hope of the Gospel for all people in what the bible and human history has proven to be harmful to society, faith and family and destructive, sexual bondage and temptation. and that God alone has the right by creation to decide human, including sexual norms. This is the position of Biblical Christians and the idea of forced compliance to new sexual norms is a danger to all people.)
TGC CAMPAIGN
The Evangelical Leaders of TGC began full on campaigns to alter the churches posture despite the COST of losing the clear HOPE of transformation offered by the Cross / the blood of Christ through forgiveness and transformation made to ALL SINNERS. Instead TGC adopted the change posture toward and promoting SOGI.
“THE GOSPEL COALITION MARKETS -SOGI THE LATEST VERBIAGE ON SEXUALITY”
TGC and Southern Baptist ERLC began having contrived conversations of their own and filling conferences and publications with Activist pushing SOGI/ Same Sex Attraction/ Inclusion / Welcoming / and LGBTQ Christian identities. Baptist and TGC affiliated seminaries began producing credentialed activist launching entire LGBTQ Christian movements like Revoice. TGC hired its own LGBTQ editors including Sam Allberry and Rosiaria Butterfield ( a specialist in Gender/ Queer/ Feminine Theory and Theology) all of whom preached the “Hospitality/ Inclusion/ Welcoming ” message. Allberry’s group Living Out, with the help of Tim and Kathy Keller even produced and launched an “Audit for LGBTQ Inclusion ” in their 2018 London Conference for conservative evangelical churches and TGC / Baptist churches of Mark Dever and 9 MARKS introduced the “Audit” in the US by November 2018.
REVOICE MOVEMENT WAS BEING BIRTHED AT BAPTIST SBTS AND LAUNCHED BY 2017
LIVING OUT CHURCH INCLUSON AUDIT
BAPTIST ERLC HELD CONFERENCES AND PROMOTED MATERIALS TO PROMOTE THE INCLUSIVE CHURCH AS THE REDEFINED FAMILY.
ERLC IN WINTER 2020 USED THE REVOICE FOUNDERS BOOK IN A PARENTS GUIDE FOR CHILDREN ON GENDER ISSUES
THE LEGISLATIVE END GAME
THE LEGISLATION ” THE EQUALITY ACT” CAN BE VIEWED HERE
https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr5/BILLS-117hr5ih.
ALSO NOTE: So Called Reparative Therapy and sexual recovery counseling ministries will be made illegal by this legislation. Counseling people to view LGBTQ activity and desire as sinful or to be repented of ,though repentance of all biblically inordinate desire and activities is the Christian norm….will be illegal and considered “harmful”. Counseling gender confused children to seek to submit to God and reconcile with their God given gender will be illegal and deemed “harmful”. Family will be redefined. And the progressive sexual agenda launched and promoted by Kinsey / Rockefeller /the APA and Planned Parenthood will move to the next frontiers -lowering or eliminating the age of consent and pedophilia.
HOW IT READS “A BILL”
“To prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender
identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.”
AGAIN – SOGI IS SELF CONTRADICTORY
The legal language of SOGI is in itself a contradiction because it seeks to go in two directions at once and assigns to sexuality a fixed and unchanging point of definition that that the Human Genome studies failed to produce. There is no “gay gene” YET Sexual Orientation, derived by the APA and other global partners from the determination to find an alternative to it, has replaced the need to identify genetic science. So the assertion is now the basis of the claim of Sexual Orientation.
Biological Gender is now separated from perceived “Gender Identity ” and we are left with subjective and fluid feelings described as dysphoria. So now not only is the confused and contradictory approach given legal language – the legal argument is now headed in the Equality Act to become equal with racial and ethnic identities and receive the full protections of the Constitution via addition to the 1964 Civil Rights Amendment and all other Federal non discrimination protections / laws/ and policies.
What comes next will be a difficult to anyone to fully predict but enforcement will no doubt seek to be immediate and intense. However the long road to realizing all that is being lost to every human in the human rights discussion will be less clear.
LGBTQ RIGHTS VS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Of concern to most Christians ,and rightly so, is the impact of the Equality Act on Religious Freedom and convictional living in the public square. Most Christians are not PERSONALLY against people who identify as LGBTQ but ARE against the normalization of any and all behaviors spoken to in God’s Word as sinful/ harmful/ self destructive. These include other sexual behaviors life fornication and adultery, rape and incest.
CONFUSION HAS BEEN REWARDED IN THE CHURCH BY SOME OF IT’S OWN.
The movement toward “Conversations” – “Welcoming Policies” – Understanding “Same Sex Attraction “- and promoting LGBTQ “Church Audits” and “Hospitality” have weakened resistance to the broader LGBTQ movement and goals ,including the Equality Act and left the church with perhaps even less understanding of what is at stake then even the LGBTQ activist have.
Leaders like Russell Moore and Albert Mohler of the conservative Southern Baptist and Tim Keller and Kevin DeYoung of once conservative Presbyterian and Reformed churches and denominational groups like the PCA have bought into the APA’s Sexual Orientation assertions as far back as 2010 .Also the Evangelical Laussane Movement did the same and even put forth multiple resources promoting the SSA narrative in 2010 as well. Ecumenical and theologically progressive /emergent groups like The Gospel Coalition have furthered the narratives and inclusion movement as a “social Change Effort” in the church. It has been very successful over the last decade plus of stealthy laboring.
THE BIG BIG PROBLEM – FEDERAL $$$$ IN CHURCH TREASURIES
NOTE: In a February 25th, 2021 Christianity Today article by globalist ecumenical/ Lausanne/ Leadership Network operative Ed Stetzer – Stetzer quotes long time NAE leader and LeadNet -co founder Leith Anderson on the concerns over the the Equality Act hindering government grant funding going into churches. Note also it is Leadership Network which controls Christianity Today and who sold the idea of Government funding and partnerships to the church via it’s stealthy influence among evangelical leadership for over 35 years.
The quote and concerns below PROVE that these “sales men”( STETZER / ANDERSON /OTHERS ) understand the DIRECT CONNECTION between the church and ministries participation in government funding which they sold the church and ministries for years and the need to be aligned with new pro LGBTQ political and cultural ” norms”. Yet these same leaders have shown no pause in selling both entrapments over the past decades. Now the crisis point is resting in the Congress and the Equality Act legislation.
“Swinging the Pendulum Too Far”
(From Christianity Today article )
“The Equality Act is the most significant threat to religious liberty in a generation”
“The Equality Act would have a significant impact on evangelical practice and mission in multiple contexts.”
“An article by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) stated in May 2019, “If the measure became law, many religious schools and charities would have to change their faith-based policies and practices, or face sanctions that could force them to close their doors.”
“At the time, NAE president Leith Anderson wrote a letter to congress arguing the following are likely outcomes if this becomes law:
Houses of worship and other religious spaces will be turned into places of “public accommodation”; Federal funds will be denied to thousands of houses of worship, schools and charities that currently receive them;…”
$$$ FEDERAL DOLLARS FROM FAITH BASED PARTNERSHIPS AND COVID RELIEF BAILOUTS HAVE ENDED THE CHURCH ABILITY TO STAND FAITHFULLY.
More Faith based Grants are coming into the church under the Biden administration.
COVID 19 PPP FUNDS- OVER $7.3 BILLION FLOODED INTO CHURCHES AND MINISTRIES IN ROUND ONE OF COVID BAILOUTS OF 2020
https://thirtypiecesofsilver.org/2020/04/07/the-end-of-church-as-we-know-it/
EQUALITY ACT DRAWS SPECIFIC ATTENTION TO ANY ENTITY GETTING GOVERNMENT FUNDING
PAGE 5 OF THE EQUALITY ACT -EXCERPT
“LGBTQ people and women face wide-10spread discrimination in employment and various services, including by entities that receive Federal financial assistance. Such discrimination A)is particularly troubling and inappropriate for programs and services funded wholly or in part by the Federal Government; (B) undermines national progress toward equal treatment regardless of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity; and (C) is inconsistent with the constitutional principle of equal protection under the Four-tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States”
EQUALITY ACT EMPLAINER BY HERITAGE
Heritage Foundation resource “FACTS”
( NOTE : This author does not usually endorse the Heritage Foundation but these over view points are helpful on understanding the Equality Act. THEY ARE NOT COMPREHENSIVE AND IGNORE THE IN HOUSE ACTIVISM AND FUNDING ISSUES.)
From the Heritage link:
https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/11-myths-about-hr-5-the-equality-act-2021
Fact: The Equality Act—introduced as H.R. 5 in the House of Representatives on February 18, 2021—makes mainstream beliefs about marriage, as well as basic biological facts about sex differences, punishable under the law.
Fact: The Equality Act guts the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and threatens constitutional freedoms by eliminating conscience protections from the Civil Rights Act. If enacted, H.R. 5 would force employers, medical professionals, educators, and religious organizations to allow men into women’s shelters, pay for or perform sex-change operations, and engage in speech that violates their consciences. Faith-based adoption and foster care agencies would be forced to violate their belief that every child deserves a mother and a father.
Fact: By expanding the definition of “public accommodations” under Title II of the Civil Rights Act to include “any establishment that provides a good, service, or program, including a store, shopping center, online retailer or service provider, salon, bank, gas station, food bank, service or care center, shelter, travel agency, or funeral parlor, or establishment that provides health care, accounting, or legal services,” many more individuals and establishments would, in fact, become liable to discrimination claims, including doctors who do not want to perform abortions.
Fact: H.R. 5 endangers unborn children. The Equality Act opens the door to taxpayer funding for elective abortions, which the vast majority of Americans oppose, regardless of political affiliation. The bill does not contain any conscience protections for those with moral or religious objections to paying for or performing abortions.
It also takes away judicial relief by blocking claims based on the RFRA. The Equality Act expands the term “sex” to go far beyond the state of being male or female, and includes “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition.”
Fact: The Equality Act’s changes to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act do not uphold Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments Act. Gender-identity policies will require biological males to be permitted to participate in female-only activities.
Fact: All single-sex spaces will be open to both sexes under the Equality Act. The Equality Act adds sexual orientation and gender identity rules to Title III of the Civil Rights Act on “public facilities” as well as to public accommodations (Title II) and federal funding (Title VI). This would create a nationwide transgender policy in single-sex facilities.
Fact: By adding sexual orientation and gender-identity rules to the Civil Rights Act’s Title IV on “desegregation of public education,” the Equality Act could pave the way for K–12 federal courts to require sexual orientation and gender-identity curricula the same way they required black history curricula.
Fact: As a result of the expanding definition of public accommodations, as well as changing federal funding requirements, doctors (and counselors) could be punished for treating gender dysphoria according to their own best medical judgment. Even a referral to another doctor could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
Fact: The Equality Act’s politicization of medicine and education through gender ideology will undermine parental rights. Since most schools will be pressured to comply with sexual-orientation and gender-identity policies, parents will have limited educational choices for their children.
Fact: The Equality Act hurts vulnerable children by punishing faith-based adoption and foster-care agencies that believe that every child deserves both a mother and a father and that children’s bodies should not be irreversibly harmed by hormonal or surgical interventions due to gender dysphoria. Imposing this radical ideology on child-welfare providers will reduce the number of “forever families” for the more than 424,000 foster children in need of them.
Fact: The Equality Act goes far beyond the Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock ruling. While Bostock invented a misguided theory of sex discrimination in employment law, it did not redefine “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity. But the Equality Act does. Bostock was limited to employment law; the Equality Act adds “sexual orientation and gender identity” to all of the nation’s civil rights laws.
NOTE: AGAIN – These outlines are helpful but not comprehensive .
FAIRNESS FOR ALL – AN ALTERNATIVE TO EQUALITY ACT?
EVANGELICALS JOINED MORMONS TO PUSH AN ALTERNATIVE LEGISLATION CALLED “FAIRNESS FOR ALL” BUT IT WAS IN FACT SUPPORTED BY THE SAME BILLIONAIRE FUNDING THE EQUALITY ACT WITH ONLY TOKEN PROTECTIONS FOR RELIGIOUS LIERTY.
The politics and funding behind Fairness For All ensured that it was only a stop over to the Equality Act if Democrats did not have the majority they now possess after the 2020 “elections”.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESS CONFERENCE ON 2021 EQUALITY ACT.
In this weeks press conference to promote the Equality Act the response to questions about Fairness For All as a viable alternative was “Fairness is worse than doing nothing and only ensures discrimination”. That is the attitude of the legislators promoting EA when the question of Religious Exemptions and protections were raised. The statement that “all religious protections currently in place will remain in place” was meant to calm concerns and end the press questions on the issue. The facts to the level of endangerment to Religious Liberty by the Equality Act will play out quickly in the courts and federal and local agencies once it becomes law.
CONCLUSION
It is impossible to protect religious freedoms while redefining them through the lens of multiple ideologies antithetical to it -especially through things opposed to deeply held Christian /Biblical conviction and the Word of the Lord. Christians will likely soo have to decide if they will fear God or man…if they will bow the knee to the idols of Babylon of take their chances with God’s promises in the fires of the cultural and political furnace.
Daniel 3:
18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Saved in Fiery Trial
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 22 Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
25 “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
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