guide us into the way we should walk. 2 Peter 1 states:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
This is a wonderful picture of standing against corruption. We have to guard against corrupt ideas from permeating our hearts and minds and, as the Church, we must be aware of how the enemy is attempting to infiltrate the body of Christ with his corrupting influences. While we rejoice in how we see God moving around the world, we also know that there are spiritual entities at work to short-circuit His work.
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We are now up to Day 18 in our Faith Radio Advent Guide, our Christmas Advent-ure, if you will. It's called, Around the World in 25 Days! and we continue to reflect on various Christmas traditions and remember that our God is working around the world. Today, we come to the Philippines, where a feast called Noche Buena is observed. WhyChristmas.com reports that family and friends are invited to partake in a midnight feast, normally including roasted pig and rice.
The corresponding Scripture passage is about a feast to come, foretold in Revelation chapter 19; there is the voice of what is called a "great multitude," saying:
7 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready."
8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
9 Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!' " And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God."
The Bible shows us the image of Christ and His Church, likening it to a husband and wife. In these days leading up to the return of our Lord, we can be devoted to pursuing the purity of God's Word, and allow Him to cleanse us.
However, there is corruption that we find in the Church today, and it takes on many forms. Instead of focusing on the One True God and operating as the bride of Christ, the Church has adopted the world's ideas, which become corrupting agents.
One dangerous instance of compromising with the world involves the perversion of God's picture for marriage and the adoption of the LGBT agenda. Last year, around this same time, I reported to you about an effort to exchange the granting of special civil rights protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity for religious protections. Just days ago, legislation was introduced into Congress under the name, "Fairness for All," which is the moniker used for this concept. And, it's related to the Equality Act.
Andrea Jones, in an article from the Daily Signal published at The Stream, writes:
A small group of House Republicans introduced a proposal on Friday that would codify the sexual orientation and gender identity provisions of the Equality Act with limited exemptions for certain religious institutions.
The inaccurately named Fairness for All Act is not an improvement on the Equality Act but rather compounds the underlying issues.
The Fairness for All Act adopts the faulty reasoning of the Equality Act, treating all disagreement about the nature of marriage and the biological basis of sex as illegal discrimination.And, Christian organizations have bought in to this concept of trading the recognition of rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity for the mirage of religious protections. As Jones points out:
In reality, its narrow exemptions for some religious schools, colleges, and charities would not even fully protect those institutions. If they open their property to the public, they would be required to allow it to be used to celebrate same-sex weddings.
The legislation also contains a severability clause, meaning that a judge could strike down the religious exemptions while leaving the other harmful provisions in place, leaving the country with the functional equivalent of the Equality Act in law.Christianity Today, in a startlingly neutral article, states:
Leaders from more than 90 evangelical groups signed a statement rejecting any legislation protecting sexual orientation or gender identity after the CCCU started to advocate for a Fairness for All law in 2016.CCCU stands for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, that has been leading this Fairness for All effort. The article says that Jim Daly of Focus on the Family was one of those leaders. The Colson Center was involved in leading the effort to mobilize Christian organizations to stand against this concept.
The article includes this statement from Owen Strachan, director of the Center for Public Theology at Midwestern Seminary, wrote in September: “Christians cannot support [Fairness for All] for this overarching reason: It is grounded in an unbiblical conception of the human person," adding, "The Scripture will not allow us to see any ungodly ‘orientation’ or ‘identity’ as essential to our humanity, as directed toward our flourishing, and thus enshrined in law as a protected category.”
But, Christianity Today's editor-in-chief Mark Galli says that a "both/and approach is possible." So does noted theologian Tim Keller. The article also states:
If legislators come to think it’s possible to embrace LGBT rights and religious liberty, they may be able to convince voters. Michael Wear, chief strategist for the And Campaign and former faith outreach director for President Barack Obama, said that in a pluralist society where people disagree about very basic things, it’s critical that leaders help people find common ground.
“Proposing a bill helps voters imagine a different possibility,” Wear said. “It’s like, this is an option. This is on the table. We need to make this conversation more concrete, not less. Voters don’t have an imagination for how it would be possible. It takes leadership to take real risk and show them how it could be.”
The And Campaign has urged all the 2020 presidential candidates to come out in support of the Fairness for All Act.Remember: the And Campaign and Michael Wear. I am sure that I will probably be talking about this group more in the future.
Some takeaways from this very important discussion. First of all, compromise can be beneficial, but it can also corrupt. Solutions can come through productive discussion, but if we compromise our deeply held principles to get there, then that is counterproductive. The concept of compromise doesn't seem to be in the lexicon of the LGBT activist. Case in point: the Fairness for All bill was panned by the President of the Human Rights Campaign, Alphonso David, who is quoted by The Hill: “The so-called Fairness for All Act is an unacceptable, partisan vehicle that erodes existing civil rights protections based on race, sex and religion, while sanctioning discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people..."
So, it seems to be a non-starter from the leading gay rights organization. And, a number of Christian organizations and leaders. Fact is, there is not an appetite for partial surrender to the radical LGBT agenda. Just ask Chick-fil-A. Or Hallmark. It's all or nothing, as far as they're concerned, and there has been a tangible lack of respect toward people of faith who do not wish to accept the practice of homosexuality or transgenderism.
The two elements: 1) civil rights in support of sinful behavior and 2) religious freedom are not compatible. In a pluralistic society, without this understanding, there will continue to be conflict. But, believers in Christ and the truth of Scripture can continue to show love toward LGBT individuals in the hopes of showing them the way to a relationship with Christ so they can discover His true freedom.
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