April 25, 2015

Is God a Homophobe?

Joy Overbeck

4/25/2015 12:01:00 AM - Joy Overbeck

A God versus political correctness hoo-ha erupted when the Western Conservative Summit, which has been called the CPAC of the West, refused to allow the Log Cabin Republicans, a same-sex marriage advocacy group, a display table at their upcoming June 26-28 Summit in Denver. Various left-wing media lobbed the usual firebombs, claiming bigotry, hatred, homophobia, unfairness, some demanding boycotts of the Summit and pressuring scheduled speakers like Gov. Scott Walker and Dr. Ben Carson to bow out.
Both sides agree the conference, which attracts 4,000 participants, has the legal right not to sell the same-sex marriage group a display table; at issue is whether it’s morally correct.
The controversy is literally of Biblical proportions since The Western Conservative Summit (WCS15) is sponsored annually by the Centennial Institute (CI), which is part of Colorado Christian University (CCU). This isn’t about political correctness or the gay agenda, it’s about the Christian principles that CCU is committed to uphold. In refusing to support or endorse same-sex marriage at their confab, CCU and the Centennial Institute are just following God’s moral orders. But the secular left is woefully ignorant about the Bible and its teachings and thinks “marriage equality” trumps God’s man-woman marriage.
Said John Andrews, CI Director, “(Log Cabin Republicans) and your members are very welcome to get tickets and attend, but we can’t officially have the organization as a partner, exhibitor, or advertiser….your worldview and policy agenda are fundamentally at odds with what Colorado Christian University stands for, so it’s just not a fit…”
When the same-sex marriage lobby of which the LCR is a significant part, insists that upholding the Christian God’s moral rules is immoral, they are essentially accusing God of being a bigot and a hater. Is God a homophobe? This is where the same-sex marriage advocates fire up the usual accusations: “Doesn’t a loving God love all his children equally, and if so, doesn’t he lovingly accept all his children’s’ behavior?” Yes, but no.
The concept of a happy-talk deity, an endless gushing fountain of love, is a very modern invention. As the Judeo-Christian God, God the Father, makes it plain in his autobiography, the Bible, he isn’t a go-along-to-get-along kind of Dad. Like the best parents, he loves us but he also disciplines us, precisely because he loves us and yes, he knows what’s best for us. Our earthly fathers say, “My house; my rules.” Our heavenly Father says, “My Creation; my rules.”
God makes it clear in the second chapter of Genesis that he created man and woman for each other. Or to quote Mr. Obama in his televised 2008 interview with Pastor Rick Warren, “I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman…for me as a Christian, it is also a sacred union--God is in the mix.” But according to his pal David Axelrod, that speech was a fiction devised to win votes from the black community. Obama later revealed he was pro-same-sex marriage all along.
Yet many Christians take God’s ethical code seriously, despite being called crazed fundamentalists, cave-dwelling Bible thumping extremists and the like. God’s rules make our anything-goes secular culture squirm. He not only frowns on homosexuality, he calls it an “abomination” in Leviticus 18:22. In the same section he forbids incest, adultery, child sacrifice, and bestiality, branding them all abominations and defilements for his people. Ouch. In the New Testament, too, these behaviors are forbidden; most specifically by the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:26-28. God believes these practices lead to spiritual and physical ruin, and he wants to protect us from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Secularists mock that these are ancient rules for another time and place; after all, we live in the 21^st Century. But God doesn’t give us an expiration date for his moral laws. The secular absolutists worship tolerance but refuse to tolerate those who don’t agree with their political agenda. And political it is: the same Log Cabin Republicans who were threatening the Western Conservative Summit admit on their website that they exist solely to further the LGBT agenda through their DC lobbying office, funds from their federal and state PACs, state activist chapters, and through influencing the GOP from within.
From the LCR website: “To attain substantial legislative progress, we need votes from both sides of the aisle—Republican and Democrat. Over the last three decades, many gay and lesbian activists worked hard to make the Democratic Party more inclusive on gay and lesbian issues. Log Cabin Republicans are doing the same important work to transform the GOP.”
The 3 to 5 percent of the population who are gay and their supporters have, in a very short time, seen the courts overturn same-sex marriage bans passed in many states. But they haven’t been that successful with Republicans, about 82 percent of whom still believe in man-woman marriage. Unsurprisingly, Republicans and conservatives are also much more likely to be Christians while Democrats and liberals aren’t.
So Christians have unwittingly become the enemy. When opposed, the LGBT coalition lashes back with a level of retribution that’s been compared to the Mafia. They don’t stop at name-calling, but viciously shame, bully and even rob Christians of their livelihoods in the name of vengeance.
Gay activists’ boycotts, harassment, and vicious social media attacks shut down cake bakers, photographers, and others whose Christian beliefs compel them to decline services to same-sex weddings. Pastors in Idaho who wouldn’t perform same-sex weddings faced possible jail time and fines until the ACLU dropped its lawsuit. Last year, the newly-appointed CEO of Mozilla was forced out of his job by pro-gay-marriage fury when his $1,000 donation to support California’s 2008 anti-same-sex-marriage initiative came to light. Even when the Christian business wins, as did Chik-Fil-A, court costs are so overwhelming that smaller companies just shut down or back down. But in a recent Rasmussen poll, 85 percent of Americans said that business owners should be allowed to deny services for gay weddings if they have a religious objection.
The gay lobby’s spitefulness belies their pleas for inclusivity and mutual respect, and their claims of oppression by evil Christians. Who are the loveless, tyrannical bigots here? Christian-phobia threatens the religious liberty guaranteed in the First Amendment, while same-sex “marriage equality” is an invented concept attempting to piggyback on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s.
In the Western Conservative Summit fracas, diplomacy and party diversity triumphed when state GOP chairman Steve House offered the Log Cabin Republicans a seat at their table, and both the LCR and Summit Director John Andrews agreed. Would that the same-sex lobby could take note and learn what compromise and inclusion are all about.