Angry and Demanding

God calls us to communicate truth in a way that is accurate, authentic, and authoritative, yet
compassionate and consistent with our Christian behavior. 2nd Corinthians 3 says:
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

When we are insecure in our walk with God and our ability to live the Christian life, we can turn to Scripture which gives us instruction and strengthens us on the inside.  The Bible tells us that yes, we are sufficient, through Christ.  We can do this - we can be bold in our faith, we can overcome the power of sin, because Jesus has overcome it through His resurrection.  We have been raised with Him and He wants to raise our level of living so that we might reflect Him.

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We are called to share and live the gospel using the tools that the Holy Spirit gives to us, so that
people will be inspired by our words and our actions. 1st Corinthians 2 states:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We hear a lot about equality these days.  There is an insidious bill that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives that would manufacture "equality" and provide special considerations for those who are gay and transgender.  This would include an equal opportunity, supposedly, for a transgender woman, who is actually a biological man, to compete in sports with biological females.

That's equality?  I actually would attach another name to it.  The bill would plunder religious freedom and force people of faith to accept lifestyles that violate their beliefs.

That's equality.  No, actually, it's not.

Adam Ford of satire site, The Babylon Bee and the factual website, Disrn, tweeted out:

GLAAD calls for 20% of primetime TV series characters to be LGBT by 2025 — which, according to Gallup, would represent four-and-a-half times the actual LGBT population

GLAAD stands for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and its posture doesn't seem to be very glad, at all.  I think angry and demanding might be better adjectives to describe its agenda, and the approach of LGBT activists.  According to the Disrn article, in the GLAAD "Where We Are on TV" report:

GLAAD is calling on the industry to ensure that 20 percent of series regular characters on primetime scripted broadcast series are LGBTQ by 2025. Further, we would challenge all platforms to make sure that within the next two years, half of LGBTQ characters on every platform are people of color. While broadcast has actually hit this mark two years in a row, cable and streaming have yet to reach this goal. These two steps are key moves towards ensuring that entertainment reflects the world in which it is created and the audience who consumes it.

Overall, according to the GLAAD report, just over 10 percent of characters in regular broadcast television regular series are considered to be gay.  So, this organization wants more so that it would more reflective of the world around it?  Well, as the article points out...

...A massive 2017 Gallup survey of 340,604 U.S. adults found that 4.5% of the population identifies as LGBT. This means that presently, LGBT characters are overrepresented on television by 227%. GLAAD’s demands that 20% of TV characters be LGBT would constitute an overrepresentation of roughly four-and-a-half times the actual LGBT population.

One of the respondents to the original Ford tweet makes an excellent point:

What % of Americans attend church & what percent of TV characters are portrayed as such? Who attended church but the Simpsons & the Hecks?

The Hecks are the family from the Patricia Heaton sitcom, The Middle.

Oh, and in a story that is certainly not from The Babylon Bee; again, from Disrn, Kellogg's, to coincide with GLAAD's "Spirit Day," has released a new cereal.  The article says:

The new product, called “All Together,” consists of several different types of Kellogg cereal, such as Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies and Froot Loops, among others. Part of the lettering on the cereal’s packaging is rainbow-colored.

On the box, you see the caricatures of the beloved Kellogg characters, such as Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, and Toucan Sam.  The article says that, "On its website, the multinational corporation says that proceeds from the product will go to support GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy and watchdog organization."

And this is to coddle less than 5 percent of the population.  Take heart - even though the gay agenda's representatives rage and shame those who disagree with it, including Bible-believing Christians, using strongarm tactics to get their way, according to Gallup, it is not the rampant social movement that one might think.  And, its intolerance in the name of tolerance may just backfire.

So, the watchword for Christians who believe the Bible's teachings on sexuality is don't buy the lie.  Homosexuality and transgenderism are not behaviors to be accommodated by the Church, but to be repudiated.  Those who practice these things should not be championed, but called to repentance.

Just like for all sins.  God loves all of us so much that He has provided solid answers to our sin problem, and offers the power to crucify the flesh, not to indulge it.  With His resources available, we can boldly and confidently live out the Biblical model of sexuality.

Now, regarding those that are trapped in sexual perversion or who embrace it, we are called to engage enthusiastically, I believe, with conviction, but not angrily; we don't have to stoop to their level.

While those who adhere to the LGBT agenda want to "demand" that people see sexuality their way, it seems, we should never demand that a person follow Jesus.  We can be bold and firm, but never condemning - that's the job of the Holy Spirit - we are called to demonstrate the love of Christ and speak and live His Word, with urgency.  But, to try to "force" someone to come to Christ can be human-inspired manipulation, rather than a Spirit-inspired mission.