Dozens of prominent Christian leaders have signed onto a campaign protesting the Obama administration’s special protections for alternative sexual lifestyles.
The new letter, online at the Colson Center, warns that the laws are a “serious threat” to the “fundamental freedoms guaranteed to every person.”
“We affirm that every individual is created in the image of God and as such should be treated with love, compassion, and respect. We also affirm that people are created male and female, that this complementarity is the basis for the family centered on the marital union of a man and a woman, and that the family is the wellspring of human flourishing. We believe that it is imperative that our nation preserve the freedoms to speak, teach, and live out these truths in public life without fear of lawsuits or government censorship,” said the letter, signed by leaders from Daniel Akin, president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to Louisiana College President Rick Brewer.
“In recent years, there have been efforts to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classifications in the law – either legislatively or through executive action. These unnecessary proposals, often referred to as SOGI policies, threaten basic freedoms of religion, conscience, speech, and association; violate privacy rights; and expose citizens to significant legal and financial liability for practicing their beliefs in the public square. In recent years, we have seen in particular how these laws are used by the government in an attempt to compel citizens to sacrifice their deepest convictions on marriage and what it means to be male and female—people who serve everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, but who cannot promote messages, engage in expression, or participate in events that contradict their beliefs or their organization’s guiding values.”
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WND has reported on numerous cases opposing the special privileges, from the baker ordered by officials in Colorado to put his employees through indoctrination because he wouldn’t promote homosexuality to the New Mexico photographer fined for not promoting a same-sex wedding.
WND’s Big List of Christian Coercion details dozens of cases which Christians have been forced to violate their faith under the auspices of an anti-discrimination claim.
Others among the dozens of key leaders who have signed “Preserve Freedom, Reject Coercion” are Robert Benne of the Institute of Lutheran Theology, Thomas Buchanan of Touchstone Magazine, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput, National Religious Broadcasters chief Jerry A. Johnson, The Master’s University leader John MacArthur, best-selling author Eric Metaxas, John Stonestreet of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview and Care Net CEO Roland Warren.
The National Religious Broadcasters, which is promoting the movement, said the laws “create special preference in law for categories based on morally significant choices that profoundly affect human relations and treat reasonable religious and philosophical beliefs as discriminatory.”
“We therefore believe that proposed SOGI laws, including those narrowly crafted, threaten fundamental freedoms, and any ostensible protections for religious liberty appended to such laws are inherently inadequate and unstable.”
The campaign also invites others to sign.
It warns: “Creative professionals, wedding chapels, non-profit organizations, ministries serving the needy, adoption agencies, businesses, schools, religious colleges, and even churches have faced threats and legal action under such laws for declining to participate in a same-sex wedding ceremony; for maintaining policies consistent with their guiding principles; and for seeking to protect privacy by ensuring persons of the opposite sex do not share showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and other intimate facilities. Under SOGI laws, people of good will can face personal and professional ruin, fines, and even jail time, and organizations face the loss of accreditation, licensing, grants, contracts, and tax-exemption.”
The campaign warns against using the power of government to “silence or punish Americans who seek to exercise their God-given liberty to peacefully line and work consistent with their convictions.”
Such laws “should be rejected.”
The NRB noted the statement “affirms every American’s freedom to peacefully live their lives according to their beliefs and opposes government coercion or censorship of fellow citizens who have different views.”
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