Bryan Fischer
Rebuilding Jefferson's wall to protect your church from the Gay Gestapo
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Homosexual activists, called the Gay Gestapo by lesbian Tammy Bruce, are busily suing or harassing every Christian business owner and wedding vendor they can find. So far they have gone after wedding photographers, bakers, florists, wedding chapel operators, counselors and now even wedding planners.
Your church may be next. Do not think for one minute that the First Amendment all by itself will
Lana Rusev, who runs Simply Elegant Wedding Planning in Jacksonville, Fla. turned down a lesbian ceremony because of her deeply held conviction that marriage is exclusively a one-man, one-woman institution.
Rusev's family fled Ukraine 26 years ago just to find freedom from this kind of anti-Christian hatred and oppression. Welcome to the land of the free, eh?
For taking a stand on biblical principle, she has been blistered, demonized and vilified on her company's Facebook page, and her business has been added to the LBGT no-go-zone directory.
Mean spirited and bigoted members of what Bill Maher calls the gay mafia won't rest until every Christian who supports natural marriage is under virtual house arrest, exiled from polite society and forbidden to engage in commerce of any kind.
guarantee your church's protection from rabid gay activists and their minions in the court system. The courts have already shredded the First Amendment virtually beyond recognition, and as far as protecting your church's religious liberty, it may be hardly worth the parchment it's printed on.
A church in Lakewood, Colorado is under fire from the gay lobby for canceling a funeral for a lesbian when her family insisted on including in the service pictures of her kissing her lesbian lover. The family is considering a lawsuit against the church, and given the predilection of the courts and its "Gay Rights Uber Alles" mindset, we can expect such a lawsuit to find a sympathetic ear.
What can your church do to make its stance abundantly clear and head off possible lawsuits at the same time? The elders of the church I belong to have formally recommended to our church family an amendment to the Constitution and bylaws that spells out in no uncertain terms the church's stance on homosexuality and gay marriage. (The elders have wisely provided church members with a 30-day comment period before the statement becomes official.)
In part, the intention here is to anticipate the possibility that the church will be approached to host a gay wedding and its pastor asked to perform a same-sex ceremony.
Here's how the addition reads:
Proposed Change for Statement of Faith
We believe that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning and that is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture.
We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
We believe that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality,
bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one's sex, or
disagreement with one's biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.
We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity.
Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of the church.
Gen. 2:24; Lev. 18:1-30; Rom. 1: 26-32; 1 Cor. 5:1-2; 6:9; 1 Thess. 4:1-8; Heb. 13:4; 1 Cor. 7:10; Eph. 5:22-23; Mark 10:6-9
–
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. It might be wise for every church in America to formally adopt this statement or one like it to prepare with prudence and foresight for a litigiously uncertain future.
Thomas Jefferson's famous wall of separation, as he articulated it, was designed to protect the church from the intrusion and interference of the state (not, you will note, to protect the state from the influence of the church). Jefferson's wall, erected by the Constitution itself, was intended to prevent the very thing we are witnessing, the state breaking down that protective barrier and barging into the affairs of Christians, Christian business owners and churches and telling them what they must believe and do.
It's time to rebuild Jefferson's wall, and this statement just might be the place to start.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
January 23, 2015
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Homosexual activists, called the Gay Gestapo by lesbian Tammy Bruce, are busily suing or harassing every Christian business owner and wedding vendor they can find. So far they have gone after wedding photographers, bakers, florists, wedding chapel operators, counselors and now even wedding planners.
Your church may be next. Do not think for one minute that the First Amendment all by itself will
Lana Rusev, who runs Simply Elegant Wedding Planning in Jacksonville, Fla. turned down a lesbian ceremony because of her deeply held conviction that marriage is exclusively a one-man, one-woman institution.
Rusev's family fled Ukraine 26 years ago just to find freedom from this kind of anti-Christian hatred and oppression. Welcome to the land of the free, eh?
For taking a stand on biblical principle, she has been blistered, demonized and vilified on her company's Facebook page, and her business has been added to the LBGT no-go-zone directory.
Mean spirited and bigoted members of what Bill Maher calls the gay mafia won't rest until every Christian who supports natural marriage is under virtual house arrest, exiled from polite society and forbidden to engage in commerce of any kind.
guarantee your church's protection from rabid gay activists and their minions in the court system. The courts have already shredded the First Amendment virtually beyond recognition, and as far as protecting your church's religious liberty, it may be hardly worth the parchment it's printed on.
A church in Lakewood, Colorado is under fire from the gay lobby for canceling a funeral for a lesbian when her family insisted on including in the service pictures of her kissing her lesbian lover. The family is considering a lawsuit against the church, and given the predilection of the courts and its "Gay Rights Uber Alles" mindset, we can expect such a lawsuit to find a sympathetic ear.
What can your church do to make its stance abundantly clear and head off possible lawsuits at the same time? The elders of the church I belong to have formally recommended to our church family an amendment to the Constitution and bylaws that spells out in no uncertain terms the church's stance on homosexuality and gay marriage. (The elders have wisely provided church members with a 30-day comment period before the statement becomes official.)
In part, the intention here is to anticipate the possibility that the church will be approached to host a gay wedding and its pastor asked to perform a same-sex ceremony.
Here's how the addition reads:
Proposed Change for Statement of Faith
We believe that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning and that is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture.
We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
We believe that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality,
bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one's sex, or
disagreement with one's biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God.
We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity.
Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of the church.
Gen. 2:24; Lev. 18:1-30; Rom. 1: 26-32; 1 Cor. 5:1-2; 6:9; 1 Thess. 4:1-8; Heb. 13:4; 1 Cor. 7:10; Eph. 5:22-23; Mark 10:6-9
–
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. It might be wise for every church in America to formally adopt this statement or one like it to prepare with prudence and foresight for a litigiously uncertain future.
Thomas Jefferson's famous wall of separation, as he articulated it, was designed to protect the church from the intrusion and interference of the state (not, you will note, to protect the state from the influence of the church). Jefferson's wall, erected by the Constitution itself, was intended to prevent the very thing we are witnessing, the state breaking down that protective barrier and barging into the affairs of Christians, Christian business owners and churches and telling them what they must believe and do.
It's time to rebuild Jefferson's wall, and this statement just might be the place to start.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
