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Government and the Gay Agenda
Make no mistake—sin is sin, and God's Word condemns all forms of sexual sin, including adultery, fornication and pornography. But what is especially shocking in modern society's war against God is how homosexual activity has gone from something practiced behind closed doors to being advocated by government and flaunted in Main Street parades. Does anyone care how God views this?
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Close in time to these events was Good Morning America 's George Stephanopoulos sitting down in April 2013 for an interview with the first openly gay athlete in a major U.S. professional team sport, basketball player Jason Collins, and declaring what a privilege it was to interview him.
It's reached the point that Americans just can't escape advocacy of homosexuality now—it's everywhere!
Tolerance becomes intolerable
Regarding a more recent incident, WND.com (formerly WorldNetDaily) editor in chief Joseph Farah writes: "For a moment, forget 'same-sex marriage.' Forget the fact that so many television shows and movies feature sympathetic 'gay' characters . . . Forget that 'homophobic' is the new 'racist' slur. Think about . . . the headlines that a sports figure gets simply by coming out of the 'gay' closet."Today, when a 'gay' NFL [National Football League] draftee kisses his same-sex partner [on TV], he is congratulated by the president of the United States. That's what happened last week [in May] when Michael Sam became the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL . . . When other athletes pointed out the gratuitousness and impropriety of the moment, they were vilified —not just by 'gay' activists, but by the sports media" ("How Far the 'Gay' Revolution Has Come," May 18, 2014, emphasis added throughout).
Retired player Derrick Ward, who said it was not good because children were watching, received death threats against him and his children. And Miami Dolphins player Don Jones, who tweeted "Horrible" after the incident, was banned from team activities and ordered to "undergo 'training' related to his comments" (Jesse Lee Peterson, "Michael Sam and the Death of Free Speech," May 18, 2014). He was further forced to apologize.
"Remember," Farah asks, "when the rhetoric of the 'gay rights' movement was, 'What I do in the privacy of my own bedroom is nobody else's business'? Today . . . the 'gay revolution' . . . has done a 180 and now believes what people do in the privacy of their own bedroom is everyone's business. It must be considered a heroic act when a homosexual tells the world what he or she is. Dissenters are punished. It was always cool to be an athlete. But now it is especially cool to be a 'gay' athlete."
(The player in question, Michael Sam, ultimately wasn't considered good enough to be signed to the active roster of any of the 32 teams in the league. However, after the NFL apparently pressured several teams to give him another chance, one did sign him to its practice squad, allowing him to practice with the team but not play in games.)
In reply to the idea that tolerance should run both ways—that people should tolerate homosexuality but that homosexuals should tolerate the sensitivities of those who disapprove—MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart argued that "tolerance, no, is not—it should not be a two-way street. It's a one- way street. You cannot say to someone that who you are is wrong, an abomination, is horrible, get a room, and all of those others things that people said about Michael Sam, and not be forced—not forced, but not be made to understand that what you're saying and what you're doing is wrong" ( Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell, May 12, 2014).
What these and many other examples show is that tolerance, as it has long been defined, is now in tolerable. Those who disagree with the proper politically correct positions must be discredited and marginalized, and their views increasingly criminalized!
We see this more and more with the proliferation of hate speech laws around the world—through which evangelical pastors have been jailed in some countries for merely quoting the Bible in labeling homosexual behavior a sin (see Leviticus:18:22-29 [22] Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
[23] Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
[24] Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
[25] And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
[26] Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
[27] (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
[28] That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.
[29] For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.; 20:13; Romans:1:26-27 [26] For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
[27] And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.; 1 Corinthians:6:9Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,). And young people in the country are being further indoctrinated with wrong thinking on this matter (see "The Gay Agenda: Coming to a School Near You ").
Court persecution of those supporting biblical values
Various government agencies and officials are forcing Christian business owners and employees to act against their conscience in providing services in support of homosexuality.For instance, a New Jersey shore Christian camp was ruled against for violating discrimination laws when it wouldn't allow a gay civil union ceremony on its property. In neighboring New York a husband and wife were fined $13,000 for refusing to host a gay wedding on their farm, which they rented out for social events. Rather than face further fines, they chose to no longer host weddings on their property.
"A judge in Colorado said that a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony must serve gay couples despite his religious beliefs, a ruling that a civil rights group hailed as a victory for gay rights" (Todd Starnes, God Less America, 2014, p. 66).
Likewise, an Oregon bakery that wouldn't bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple came under a formal state discrimination examination and was eventually pushed by gay activists to shut down. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries commissioner said: "The goal is to rehabilitate. For those who do violate the law, we want them to learn from the experience and have a good, successful business in Oregon" (p. 69). How benevolent that the state is willing to rehabilitate and reeducate Christian business owners!
Similarly, "a family-owned bakery in Indianapolis was subjected to a city investigation after it declined to make cupcakes for National Coming Out Day" (p. 65).
"The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that two Christian photographers who declined to photograph a same-sex union violated the state's Human Rights Act . . . Justice Richard Bosson wrote in the court's unanimous decision . . . [that] at its heart, this case teaches that at some point in our lives all of us must compromise, if only a little, to accommodate the contrasting values of others . . . [Despite Constitutional protection of religion] there is a price, one that we all have to pay somewhere in our civic life . . . to leave space for other Americans who believe something different" (p. 70).
Again, this tolerance does not extend to accommodating Christians' objections to what they believe to be immoral!
Syndicated columnist Star Parker draws a poignant comparison: "Would anyone question the refusal of a black vendor to sell sheets to the local Ku Klux Klan chapter? Or a Jewish merchant refusing to sell the poster board for a Neo-Nazi rally? Or refusal of a Christian video service to make a pornographic film?
"So why is it not perfectly clear that the religious freedom of a Christian merchant is violated if that merchant is forced to bake a cake or prepare a flower arrangement for a same-sex marriage, which is not only as personally repugnant to that vendor as any in the cases above, but is also a clear and literal violation of the scripture that defines the faith of these individuals?" ("'Gay' Agenda: A Cultural War Against Christians," WND, Feb. 28, 2014).
Government enforcing homosexual agenda
The federal government is certainly fast-tracking the homosexual agenda—often in violation of constitutional liberties. Department of Justice (DOJ) employees were sent a brochure directing them to verbally affirm homosexuality. Not saying anything was not an option, as the brochure stated that "Silence will be interpreted as disapproval.""DOJ Pride" stickers had to be posted in offices to show that this was a "safe place." Employees were further told to avoid "offensive" phrases such as "gay lifestyle" or "sexual preference."
"Christians are frightened and terrified of losing their jobs," said Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. "You just can't keep your head down and do your job. Now you have to become an advocate for the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] agenda—and if you don't, the DOJ will consider that to be intolerant" (quoted by Starnes, pp. 78-79).
Evangelical pastor Louie Giglio was pressured to back out of delivering the benediction at President Obama's second inauguration in 2012 when gay rights activists learned of a sermon he gave in the 1990s calling homosexuality a sin and stating that the "only way out of a homosexual lifestyle … is through the healing power of Jesus."
Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, said this on his website: "We now see the new Moral McCarthyism in its undisguised and unvarnished reality. If you are a Christian, get ready for the question you will now undoubtedly face: 'Do you now or have you ever believed that homosexuality is a sin?' There is nowhere to hide" (Jan. 10, 2013).
He went on to state the disturbing truth: "The Presidential Inaugural Committee and the White House have now declared historic, biblical Christianity to be out of bounds, casting it off the inaugural program as an embarrassment. By its newly articulated standard, any preacher who holds to the faith of the church for the last 2,000 years is persona non grata."
With each passing year the situation worsens. Who would have imagined the U.S. Armed Forces color guard marching alongside rainbow flags in the gay pride parade at the nation's capital? It was "something never before seen on an American city street"—and yet it happened this year, authorized by the Department of Defense" (Aaron Davis, The Washington Post, June 6, 2014).
Every year Tel Aviv, Israel, holds the largest gay parade in the Middle East, but there was something new this year, according to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, who wrote on his Facebook page: "For the first time in history, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv has raised the Pride flag together with our American flag. We are proud to join with the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo and its residents in celebrating LGBT Pride Week" (June 13, 2014).
Not content with transforming American society alone, the White House has directed the U.S. State Department and other government agencies to use U.S. funds to support international homosexual organizations, pressure other nations to change their laws outlawing homosexual activity, and support homosexuals who wish to seek asylum and resettle in the United States.
We see the same in other Western nations too. After Britain's legalization of gay marriage last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron called it "a great achievement" and said he wants to "export" how this was done, having the legislative team behind it "take it around the world" (quoted by Christopher Hope, "David Cameron: 'I Want to Export Gay Marriage Around the World,'" The Telegraph, July 24, 2013).
What happens to nations unashamed of sin
We should consider the attitude of ancient Israel and Judah, which worked to their national destruction—just as it is for America, Britain and the Jewish state today.The prophet Isaiah wrote: "For Jerusalem stumbled, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord [this being part of the war against God] . . . The look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves" (Isaiah:3:8-9 [8] For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
[9] The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.). That is, the sufferings in their personal lives as well as the calamitous national judgment God brought and will bring again in the future.
In Jeremiah:6:15Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. and 8:12 God similarly declares: "'Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down,' says the Lord."
No society that has seen widespread acceptance of homosexual activity has endured for long. It became widely accepted in the Greek and Roman empires and contributed to their moral declines and eventual collapse. Today one can walk among the ruins of those vanished empires and see where their collective choices led them.
Sadly, America, Britain and other modern Israelite nations determined to make the same mistakes and follow the same path to the same fate. Isaiah:3:12As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths., speaking of todays leaders, says, "O my people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path" (New International Version).
Hope through turning to God
Of course, God also says in Jeremiah:18:6-8 [6] O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.[7] At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
[8] If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. that He stands ready to forgive if and when people repent. In 2 Chronicles:7:14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. He assures us, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (See also "Hope for Sinning Nations and Individuals ".)
Make no mistake—this is exactly what the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and other leading Western nations need to do! And individually we need to pray for our leaders and people, that they will turn from rejecting God and humbly seek Him.
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