Print 
PDF
NBC and others are reporting that "President Trump on Thursday, made good on a promise to allow religious organizations greater freedom in political speech."
Senator Patty Murray has joined Congressman Ted Lieu in sponsoring legislation called, "The Fraud Prevention Act," specifically aimed at stopping Christian pastors and counselors from counseling those who want to be free from same-sex attraction.
Is Sen. Murray and her cohorts suggesting that the Apostle Paul---or even Scripture is fraudulent?
Late yesterday the House voted 217 to 213 to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Twenty Republicans joined the 193 Democrats who voted against the repeal of Obamacare late yesterday afternoon, however, there were enough votes to get the GOP revised bill passed.
Among other things, the bill does defund Planned Parenthood. We will be taking a closer look at it today on our live radio program. Join me.
NBC and other news organizations reported yesterday that "President Trump...made good on his promise to allow religious organizations greater freedom in political speech."
The president said, "We are giving our churches their voices back." We will be "leading by example" on religious liberty in the United States.
Candidate Trump had promised during the campaign that if elected he would dismantle the Johnson Amendment, which bans non-profits like churches from political speech and activities.
This executive order, called "Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty," is the first step toward dismantling the unconstitutional Johnson Amendment, which was sneaked through Congress by then Senator Lyndon Johnson as pay back against a couple of Christian businessmen who had opposed him in Texas.
This is an explanation of the Johnson Amendment.
Pastor Mark Burns, who attended the signing yesterday, spoke, I hope, for many pastors when he told NBC, "This is a great day for religious freedom in America."
President Trump said, "Faith is deeply embedded into the history of our country, the spirit of our founding and the soul of our nation. We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore."
A short distance from this Rose Garden signing, legislation called the "Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act" (S. 928/H.R. 2450) is working its way through Congress.
Congressman Ted Lieu (D- CA), is sponsoring the bill in the House, while Senators Patty Murray (D- WA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) are pushing it in the Senate. While others have now joined, you will note that the first Senate signature is that of Patty Murray, "the mom in tennis shoes," as she once described herself when she first ran for political office.
Much has changed since then---or perhaps it has not. One thing certain, Patty Murray now has a great deal of power in DC.
No recent event could better define the stark difference of worldviews in our government.
We see the president advancing religious freedom and liberty, while the Left seeks to silence Christianity, and suggest that both the Apostle Paul and God's Word is itself a fraud.
Both the Apostle Paul in the New Testament and the prophets of the Old Testament defined same-sex behavior as sin, in the strongest terms.
However, the Bible (and certainly the Apostle Paul and other writers of the New Testament) declares that "all of us have sinned," therefore "all of us" need a Savior-- forgiveness, deliverance and restoration, regardless of what sins we have committed.
This is the message of the Bible. John 3:16 defines Christianity.
However, the message of the Left, including the so-called religious Left, has now evolved to a view that they can selectively decide what is, and is not sin; and what behavior can and cannot be restored by God.
Lieu and Murray's legislation describes its purpose and intent as, "To prohibit, as an unfair or deceptive act or practice, commercial sexual orientation conversion therapy, and for other purposes."
This legislation is very similar to a bill in California that would ban Christian counseling for those who want help overcoming same-sex attractions.
The bill lays out "the findings" as "absolute and scientific."
The bill reads in part:
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gendernonconforming is not a disorder, disease, illness, deficiency,
or shortcoming.
(2) The national community of professionals in education,
social work, health, mental health, and counseling has
determined that there is no scientifically valid evidence that
supports the practice of attempting to prevent a person from
being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender
nonconforming.
(3) Such professionals have determined that there is no
evidence that conversion therapy is effective or that an
individual's sexual orientation or gender identity can be
changed by conversion therapy.
(4) Such professionals have also determined that the
potential risks of conversion therapy are not only that it is
ineffective, but also that it is substantially dangerous to an
individual's mental and physical health, and has been shown to
contribute to depression, self-harm, low self-esteem, family
rejection, and suicide.
(5) It is in the interest of the Nation to prevent lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender nonconforming people and
their families from being defrauded by persons seeking to
profit by offering this harmful and wholly ineffective therapy.
There's more. I suggest you read it.
Not only are these public servants playing God in regard to personal salvation and restoration, but they have also bestowed upon themselves the mantle of "scientist."
They have a problem.
The most recent in-depth secular---repeat secular, study on "Questions related to sexuality and gender"---conducted and written by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer, an epidemiologist trained in psychiatry and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, arguably the most important psychiatrist of the last half century, was published last fall, "The New Atlantis, A Journal of Technology & Society."
The report states, "This report focuses on the higher rates of mental health problems among LGBT populations and it questions the scientific treatments of children who do not identify with their biological sex."
This, of course, is directed at gender-related surgical procedures for children---and activist directed indoctrination toward children regarding sexuality. And the increased emotional issues, including increased suicides in the homosexual community.
The 145-page study is exhaustive and informative---but concludes with "Examining research from the biological, psychological, and social sciences, this report shows that some of the most frequently heard claims about sexuality and gender are not supported by scientific evidence."
For example, there is no scientific evidence that proves homosexuals are "born that way."
While Sen. Patty Murray's "Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act" both perpetuates fraud and accuses biblical Christianity of "fraud," it also would prevent people in need from finding true and lasting help---and eternal life.