Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Equality Act

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With more individuals identifying with the LGBTQ+ movement than ever before and the general acceptance of alternative “lifestyles,” our country is ready for the Equality Act to pass into law. The Equality Act is a piece of sweeping legislation that would amend the Civil Rights Act which will expand the definition of discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

What this bill is capable of doing to this country is absolutely unnerving and every Christian should be paying attention.

One of the consequences of the Equality Act is that it prohibits Christian-owned businesses from operating according to their deeply held religious convictions. According to the bill, business owners are forced to implement a strict pronoun policy, hire individuals that have made lifestyle choices that run contrary to a Biblical worldview, and ensure that their bathrooms, in effect, are open to all genders. In other words, if a business doesn’t allow a man to go into a girl’s bathroom, they could face lawsuits and federal fines until they either comply or shut down.

The Equality Act also undoes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which protects religious organizations from litigation and ensures that our 1st Amendment right of freedom of religion remains. Yet, if the Equality Act does pass, churches will be mandated by the State to perform gay weddings, prohibited from preaching certain topics, and prevented from providing Biblical counsel regarding transgenderism and sexuality.

When the Equality Act becomes law of the land, any pastor who opens up their Bible and reads Romans 1:26-27 and calls homosexuality sinful, or Genesis 1:27 where only two genders are identified, would be charged for inciting hatred to the LGBTQ+ community and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. And if you Christian, slip up and don’t use an individual’s preferred pronouns, you could lose your job or worse. Even before the Equality Act, we have seen bakeries and floral shops fined, teachers losing their jobs, and medical professionals having their licenses revoked, all because they didn’t follow the prevailing Zeitgeist in America which states that how a person feels matters more than biology or reality.

The Equality Act should concern you because if it passes, gone is the protection of religious liberty that has been foundational to our nation.

However, if it does pass, it doesn’t change reality. God has created two genders (male and female) and marriage is the sacred institution between one man and one woman. Sexual immorality in any form and attempts to redefine and deviate from what God has deemed as “good” and “healthy” is sinful. Regardless, if anyone agrees, God has set the terms and definitions concerning gender and sexuality within the Scriptures and they are unchanging.

Our response to the erosion of religious liberty and the assault against the Biblical worldview is simple: Stand firm on what the Bible says. Come what may, the Bible is the final authority, and as Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Wavering or avoiding clear teachings of Scripture, or apologizing for what the Bible says, is not loving the world well. And staying silent on this issue is not loving your neighbor either.

The Equality Act benefits no one. It destroys your neighbor’s liberty, obliterates religious expression, and hurts the very people that it is claiming to help—the LGBTQ+. How are they hurt? The Equality Act reinforces the lie that sex is separate from gender and a life of self-fulfillment regarding sexual expression, apart from God’s design, is the ultimate pursuit. As Christians, we don’t rejoice at wrongdoing (1 Cor. 13:6) nor we, as Solzhenitsyn said, “live by lies.” In a time like ours, we must be very clear on the truth and stand by those principles regardless of the cost.

At the time of writing this, the Equality Act has just passed in the House and now it moves into the Senate where it will be voted into law, unless God is merciful and intervenes. Pray for our nation and its leaders and prepare yourself and your churches to be ready for the time when it is criminal to say, “The Bible says…”

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