On the way in from the radio studio in San Bernardino my producer and I stopped at a favorite watering hole to have a few beers. The Sons of Liberty offers a fine array of craft beers, and to my knowledge is the only Inland Empire tavern fashioned after a colonial era pub. As I always do when I visit the Norco aleworks, I had with me a stack of pocket constitutions, and business cards, to encourage folks to read the Constitution, and learn more about it through the various efforts I offer Online, on the air, and at my Constitution Classes and public speaking events.
The patrons were excited to receive their very own copy of the United States Constitution, and I struck up a number of conversations. The longest conversation was with a couple of women sitting at a table against the wall, laughing as they consumed their dark brews. It didn't take long to realize that the pair of women were a couple, or as they called it, a domestic partnership. The discussion focused on the Constitution, but inevitably, the verbal intercourse altered direction and the issue of gay marriage surfaced. One of the women, a current Orange County Sheriff, asked about what I thought regarding Proposition 8, the California State Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and its journey through the federal courts.
I told her that I support Proposition 8. As a constitutionalist, I recognize that the federal government has no authority over marriage, but the States, if they desire to, can have legislation in regards to marriage. That said, The Defense of Marriage Act, a federal piece of legislation regarding gay marriage, is unconstitutional and should be repealed. However, Proposition 8 is completely constitutional, and the court case should have gone no further than the California State Supreme Court, which upheld the popularly voted state constitutional amendment.
The woman said to me that she felt the proposition shouldn't have even gone to a vote in the first place. Why should anybody be able to make a law regarding her pursuit of happiness?
I then said something that set her back a little. I said, "Though from a constitutional point of view marriage is a State issue, my question is 'why is government involved in marriage in the first place?' I understand the contract law argument, and to be honest, government is not involved for the most part in the creation of contracts. The courts only get involved if a contract is broken, and someone feels wronged and takes the issue to court. Then, the decision by the court is based on the provisions of the contract, or how the contract was drawn up."
As I have explained a number of times before in my classes, and in my writing, allowing government to stick its nose into marriage enables marriage to be politicized. Politicians can now use an issue that is supposed to be the personal business of a couple as a political device for earning a vote, and militant factions within the gay community can use the "civil right" designation to claim gay marriage is a constitutional right, and then use that political tool as a weapon against those who they consider to be their opposition.
Churches have survived and fallen based on their teaching of the Bible, and their ability to attract people based on those doctrinal teachings. This makes churches not unlike businesses, in a manner of speaking. Churches and religious denominations compete for parishioners, and reap the benefits, or the consequences, of their decisions in regards to how close they cling to the language of the Holy Bible. A church that has the freedom to choose who to marry, outside of government control, may marry gays, and may not, and the church should be free to make that decision. As a result of their actions, the church will attract a particular kind of flock, which will either strengthen, or weaken, the church's viability. Remember, it is not up to the government to ensure the churches teach one thing, or another. It is up to the churches to make those decisions. And if a church acts in a manner that is considered by Christians to be outside the teachings of the Bible, that church will be affected by that decision. The strength of Christianity begins in the pulpit, not in the office of some bureaucrat.
Not all gays are dancing flamers with a political agenda designed to destroy Christianity. When I talk about how the homosexual agenda will use their new "constitutional right" of gay marriage to force churches to marry gays, whether they like it or not, through lawsuits, and then move to forcing churches to hire gay Sunday School Teachers, and so forth, the average gay, and liberal, says, "I don't see that happening."
Though a portion of the gay community would not do such a thing, there is a large segment of their ranks that would. There are liberals and gays that specifically want to use this agenda to destroy all opposition, and to destroy Christianity from within by forcing the churches to either comply with the demands of the changing face of society, or be ruined and left to fall.
Let us not forget, those who support the gay lifestyle can believe what they want in this country, but so can those who oppose that lifestyle. I am not interested in using government to force anybody to act a certain way in the bedroom. That is outright ridiculous, and flies in the face of my ideas regarding the principles of limited government.
This also means that some gays are not interested in using government to force people to accept the gay lifestyle as "normal," either, but unfortunately, there are enough members of the gay community who do wish to use government to force the homosexual lifestyle into the culture, into the schools, and into the churches into the hope of destroying all opposition.
That all said, it came as no surprise when the following story crossed my desk:
Two homosexual students at George Washington University have announced a coordinated campaign to try to rid the campus of its Catholic chaplain, the GW Hatchet, the school’s independent newspaper reports.
Seniors Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen said they can no longer tolerate what they describe as Father Greg Shaffer’s anti-homosexual and anti-abortion beliefs. They say they are upset that Fr. Shaffer counsels homosexual students to lead a celibate lifestyle.
Fr. Shaffer has served as chaplain at George Washington University’s Newman Center for the past five years.
Legacy and Bergen have charged that Fr. Shaffer’s beliefs have caused them psychological anguish.
The students plan to file a formal complaint with the university administration, conduct prayer vigils outside the Newman Center, and produce a video containing statements from students who have left the Newman Center. The students are also requesting that the GW Student Association defund the Newman Center.
The recommendation for gays to lead a celibate lifestyle is biblical, for if marriage is only between a man and a woman, and sex is only for marriage, then someone who has succumbed to their predisposition of a gay lifestyle will struggle be a godly person if they are having sex outside of a God-accepted marriage which would be considered an activity that is in direct disobedience of God. Of course the comment by atheists that jokes with Jesus saying, "Sorry I made you gay. Gimme one last hug before you go to Hell for eternity." is not very accurate. The only unpardonable sin is rejection of Christ. Everyone has the opportunity to accept a relationship with Jesus Christ, but in doing so the new creature that we become after salvation is often at odds with the fleshly pursuits of our old being.
In regards to attacks against the church by militant homosexuals, such as in the case of the two students demanding the removal of the chaplain from the Newman Center, this is only the beginning. The politicization of the gay agenda enables the militant arm of the homosexual community to use the government as a weapon against religion, and to do what they can to force their agenda on the churches, and in their hopes, to destroy religious institutions completely.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Homosexual Students Hope to Oust Catholic Chaplain from University Campus - Cardinal Newman Society
Sorry I made you gay - Atheist Meme Base
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