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The destructive consequences to religious liberty cannot be overstated should the so-called "Equality Act" be passed by the US Senate. It has passed the House and is being debated in the Senate this week.
A group of nearly 60 black pastors and leaders have written a letter urging senators to reject it because it isn't about "equality." Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women For America, says it should be called the "Inequality Act."
However, the Democrats, in their newly acquired power in Congress and the Oval Office, are poised to pounce like an adult wolf would attack a lamb or a newborn calf.
Be informed, not misled.
It's not about Equality. It's about advancing an agenda.
The "Equality Act" will turn LGBTQ rights into a sword to the heart of faith-based institutions and individuals if passed.
The cultural shift away from America's founding principles cannot be overstated. Much of our religious freedom---given by God, to be protected by the government, would be canceled by the government in the name of "equality," by a piece of legislation that is about anything but "equality."
57 prominent black pastors and Christian leaders have organized into a campaign called the "AND Campaign" and have written a letter urging the Senate to reject the "Equality Act."
The link to their letter includes the names of those who signed it.
In the letter, they warned that this bill was "a danger to not just Christian institutions, but those belonging to our Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, and Muslim neighbors as well"
The letter says in part:
"It would remove many of the basic rights that allow religious organizations to operate according to their tenets of faith. It would allow LGBT rights to be used as a sword against faith institutions rather than a shield to protect the vulnerable. In addition to failing to offer religious protections to religious institutions, it would likely:" then they list a number of actual discriminatory results that would follow the passing of the bill---concluding with "Convert houses of worship and other religious properties into public accommodations, enmeshing them in constant litigation."
While this letter is certainly well-intentioned, they also offer an alternative called the "Fairness for All Act" which, they say, would [protect] religious liberty as well as preserve the rights of the LGBTQ community."
"This act," they say, "is a product of churches and the LGBTQ community coming together to find ways to coexist and promote tolerance."
Understood. But the history of the LGBTQ activist community is to impose not tolerance, but affirmation--- a celebration of their chosen behavior.
That's why the LGBTQ community, who is the major force behind this bill---along with the Biden administration---will accept nothing less than the whole bill.
Senate hearings on the bill began this week.
As Senate hearings on the bill opened this week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-WIS) ---the first openly gay member of the Senate, said, "Discrimination remains a daily reality for members of the LGBTQ community."
Baldwin said a lot of progress has been made for LGBTQ Americans since she first came to Washington in 1999, "but more is needed."
She and her colleagues think the "Equality Act" is "the next step."
Sen. Dick Durban (D-IL), the committee chairman said, "A recent study found that one out of three LGBTQ Americans, including three out of five transgender Americans, experienced discrimination over the past year. And that's why it's critical."
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and others explained how the "Equality Act" will force institutions like churches and employers to provide health insurance that covers abortion in violation of their constitutionally protected religious rights.
Other Christian leaders are speaking out strongly about it. Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women For America, told CBN: "It should be called the inequality act."
This "Act" will expand on the 1964 Civil Rights Act by broadening the definition of protected classes to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
Do we really believe that ethnicity is equivalent to sexual behavior? And do we really want to enshrine that notion into our nation's laws?
If sexual behavior is a right equal to that of the color of one's skin, what could be next?
True equality involves the idea that "We hold these truths to be self-evident." Is homosexuality a self-evident truth that must be protected in the same way ethnicity is protected?
Is sexual behavior really the same as religious freedom?
Today's gay-rights warriors will not stop until it is so according to our laws, because they have already canceled God's laws in their own minds.
Ironically, this bill is not being advanced in isolation. There are 3 interrelated agendas being pushed.
"Think of them as a stack of Russian Matryoshka dolls, the smaller ones nesting within the larger ones. The largest, most visible, and naturally winsome is the Social Justice doll, of late wearing a Black Lives Matter tee-shirt and protesting against racism while insisting that all whites are at least unconsciously racist. Apart from the extremism, manipulation and hypocrisy, racial equality is a just cause."
He continues,
"The Social Justice doll provides cover for the next smaller Gender doll, which has been cleverly designed in the exact same shape, as if gender-bender issues are as legitimate as race issues. Under the Equality Act, one mustn't discriminate against LGBTQ or 'trans' persons. Hence, boys identifying as girls cannot be excluded from playing on girl's sports teams; and women identifying as men cannot be refused employment by churches having conscientious religious scruples (even if that violates the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of religion!)"
"Nested within the Gender doll," LaGard explains, "the Equity doll looks like an identical twin of 'equality', but don't be fooled. Far from being the equality of 'opportunity' on which this nation was founded, the goal of the Leftist 'equity' is equality of outcome, both economic and social. Never mind that every system ever devised to produce equality of outcome has only succeeded in lowering the level for everyone---except of course for the elitist planners themselves. Not one of today's equity activists would want true equality of outcome if it meant having to give up their positions of power, or their expensive homes and swanky SUV's in safe suburbs, Equity stops abruptly at their door."
If we really truly--- and I don't believe we do---want equality, we must go to the source. Equality was God's idea.
LaGard says, "Yet God never guaranteed outcomes, only equality of opportunity, as in the 'golden text': For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
All are invited, but not everyone will accept, including apparently, Rep. Jerry Nadler---who during discussion of this bill took the microphone from a Christian Representative and on the House floor, on the record, declared "What any religious tradition describes as God's will is no concern of this Congress!"
Obviously not.
LaGard, himself a retired law professor, says, "In time, a conservative Court may yet be a crucible backstop for religious freedom. In the meantime, unequal discrimination against faith will prevail. How then will we respond?"
I'll be talking further about this matter, and our Christian response on our radio program today.
You can join me on any of several stations at various times today, or you can listen by streaming at various times. This is a link to the stations we are currently on. Thanks for joining me today.
The words of the prophet Joel (3:14) loom large today:
"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."
Tough decisions lie ahead for each of us.
But one thing is certain. God is in control...And for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Resolute. Be Prayerful.