While We Were Sleeping…

You’re sitting in your place of worship on a Sunday morning, surrounded by family and friends. As the pastor delivers a prayer, you sit with eyes closed and your mind tuned into the pastor’s words… and God. The prayer is abruptly interrupted by a loud commotion. You quickly open your eyes only to see your pastor being forcibly restrained by police officers.

Some around you in the congregation sit wide-eyed, paralyzed by fear, while others sprint for the exits, only to be blocked by other police officers. After the pastor is marched out in handcuffs and those who attempted to leave are escorted back to their seats, a man takes the pulpit and announces that your pastor has been arrested and will be formally charged and tried as a terrorist.

As you sit in complete trepidation, you hear that a passage from the Bible in the message your pastor delivered a few weeks prior, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” - 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (New International Version), is now officially deemed “hate speech” and is a “human rights” violation...

Though this hasn’t happened here yet, it may become a possibility much sooner than you think as the homosexual lobby has now got its way in getting “hate crimes” legislation passed. Yes, while we were sleeping, whether caught up in the busyness of life today or simply victims of complacency thinking someone else will take care of it, the traditional family and traditional marriage have now taken a severe blow.

The Senate voted on a dangerous hate crimes bill that Senator Harry Reid attached as an amendment to a National Defense bill. The homosexual movement and its cronies in the Senate were so concerned about having their bill debated on its own merit, as individual legislation, that they attached it to a much needed Defense Authorization bill. As we now move forward, religious freedom, as we’ve known it from the conception of this nation, will likely have to give way to constitutional law as same-sex “marriages” are legalized.

It’s already happening around the globe. In Canada, where these laws are already in place, a newspaper ad quoting from the Bible on homosexuality was deemed a “human rights offense” and the newspaper and the man who placed the ad were both forced to pay three homosexuals $1,500 each, merely because they objected to it. Also in Canada, a high-school teacher was suspended without pay simply because he’d written a letter to the editor sharing his belief that no one is born gay. (U.S. News & World Report, 4/11/04)

There have been cases in England, Sweden, Belgium, and Spain where pastors and other Christian leaders have been arrested for speaking out against homosexuality and, sadly enough, we’ve already seen cases here as well. I wrote a few years ago about a group of 11 Christians (including a couple of grandmothers) arrested in Philadelphia under “hate crimes” legislation, while merely conducting an evangelistic outreach during a gay pride event there. Each faced 47 years in prison and $90,000 in fines.

As I wrote last week, this is not about hate. It’s about truth and carries with it far-reaching moral, health, and economic implications into our schools, workplaces, churches, and our homes. My intent is to educate and inform you as to just how so, however, as this legislation has passed I may not be able to do so.

Homosexual activists have often referred to Bible-believing, Christian activists, who won’t succumb to all the shades of gray in society today, as the only thing standing between them and society fully embracing their agenda. Of course homosexual activists and their human secularist allies want God and His infallible Word removed from this debate altogether, for without God we have no moral compass and will be apt to accept nearly anything.