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We are used to newspaper editors editorializing.
Newspapers across the country are engaged in endorsing everything from their favorite political candidates to legislation to movies that promote their particular beliefs.
We call it freedom of the press.
Bob Eschliman is a veteran news editor who has won 70 journalism awards, 7 of them as editor in chief of the Newton Daily News.
Bob is also a Christian and believes the Bible.
The Newton Daily News has fired him because he criticized the revised and homosexual friendly, "Queen James Bible."
The criticism was not published in the newspaper, it was written on a blog on his personal website. One that the newspaper was well aware of and did not oppose when they hired him.
But what if it had been in the publication? How many "editorials" have you seen mocking those who stand for traditional marriage or the sanctity of life? Or opposing political candidates who hold traditional values?
Eschliman has now filed formal charges against the Newton Daily News and its parent company Shaw Media, claiming they violated his First Amendment rights and his right to religious expression.
The newspaper is saying, "The First Amendment does not eliminate responsibility and accountability for one's words."
What were his "words?"
The Des Moines Register is reporting that Eschliman wrote on his personal website blog that the "Queen James Bible and the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo are trying make their sinful nature right with God."
Are they?
Was he fired because the Queen James folks are "not" doing that?
The newspaper claims that Eschliman also referred to gays as the enemy.
A glance at their website, which sells the so-called "Bible", is pretty clear that they are trying to set the record straight...and in their mind, the record is that God is not opposed to homosexual behavior---in fact they say, "He made us that way," and all the other versions of the Bible are wrong and misleading.
In fact they say, "Homosexuality was first mentioned in the Bible in 1946 in the Revised Standard Version. There is no mention of or reference to homosexuality in any other Bible prior to this--only interpretations have been made. Anti-LGBT Bible interpretations commonly cite only eight verses in the Bible that they interpret to mean homosexuality is sin; eight verses in a book of thousands!"
"We edited those eight verses," they say "in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible."
There are millions of Christians who would profoundly disagree with that because it stands in rebellion to God's Word and His definition of sin.
There are also hundreds, if not thousands of Christian scholars and theologians who have debunked their claim of biblical error a long time ago.
The tagline on the site that sells their "Bible" says, "You can't choose your sexuality, but you can choose Jesus. Now you can choose a Bible, too."
That too, is edited and deceptive. There is not one piece of scientific evidence that supports the notion that homosexual behavior is genetic. They were not born that way.
There is no question they can "choose Jesus" but choosing Him does not mean we edit biblical teaching to affirm our chosen sin. It means we accept His forgiveness, redemption, restoration and deliverance from those behaviors the Bible declares to be sin. We become a "new" creature in Christ.
Mankind conforms to God's Word through God's redemptive power and message.
The story of Christianity is not one where mankind conforms the Bible to affirm the culture and sin.
Biblical Christianity is to shape the culture. The culture is not to shape biblical Christianity.
So how far out were the words of Eschliman?
Liberty Institute is now legally representing him.
They said they believe he has a strong case and that "no one should be fired for simply expressing their religious beliefs."
That's true. However, there is a growing sense of boldness and inevitability expressed by those who seek to destroy the influence of traditional values in the culture.
The words tolerance, equality, fairness and inclusive are hardly used by the activists any more because those words have lost there usefulness to the cause.
In their minds, they have won the battle of words and are now focused on the battle to control the culture and the actions, thoughts and religious beliefs of those who believe differently then they.
And to attack the source of those beliefs and values---the Bible.
It's doubtful that the Dayton Daily News and its parent company are that committed to the homosexual activists agenda---who knows; most likely they are trying to "be on the right side of history" as homosexual activists like to say, or to be politically correct and "relate" to current culture.
I predict a major public push back toward all the efforts to destroy both religious freedom and the influence of the religion that gave us the greatest country in the world---Christianity.
These folks continue to presume and over reach.
One of the issues the newspaper had with Bob Eschliman was, they said, he referred to homosexuals as the "enemy."
To a biblical Christian, it is clear Bob was referring to Satan as the "Enemy," a comment often found in the New and Old Testaments.
He says he forgot to capitalize the "e".
And speaking of the Enemy.
The secular progressive agenda---homosexuality, the abortion industry, the assault on faith, freedom and family, relative truth is not perpetrated primarily by people who themselves have been deceived but "through them" by the "Enemy" whom the Bible identifies as Satan--the great deceiver.
The secular progressives have spun a web of deception and we are beginning to see the consequences.
While many credit Shakespeare, it was Sir Walter Scott who wrote in the play "Marmion," "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive."
In the story, Lord Marmion is trying to win the favor of a lady. This lady is already promised to someone else, but Marmion decided to use his position and influence to take the lady anyway. He accused the lady's suitor, Sir Wilton, of treason. Wilton then has to flee the country after a fight. Later on Marmion dies in battle and Wilton is able to come back and marry the lady.
The Apostle Paul is very direct in his letter to the Colossians (2:8), "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of man, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."
Beware the web of deception that is being woven into the fabric of our culture.
Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Informed. Be Not Deceived. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.