January 17, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – I wish the mainstream media and the Democratic politicians realized that one of the primary reasons Donald Trump has a decent shot at getting re-elected despite the nonstop snarl of scandals that have plagued his presidency is that they cannot stop showing their utter contempt for millions of Christian Americans.
As one Christian commentator recently noted: All they have to do is not hate us, and they can’t even do that.
Consider a recent headline over at the Associated Press: “Tennessee governor says he will sign anti-gay adoption bill.” It seems that Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced earlier this week that he will be signing a bill affirming tax-payer funding for faith-based adoption agencies and foster care “even if they exclude LGBT families and others based on religious beliefs.”
Translation: Tennessee is passing a bill preventing the LGBT movement from shutting down Christian organizations that seek to operate according to the tenets of their faith and wish to place children in homes with both a mother and a father. While the LGBT movement has made it a heresy to claim children need both a mom and a dad, reasonable people should be able to agree that children are obviously best off with both a mother and father if at all possible.
An alternative headline could be this: “Tennessee governor will sign law protecting the right of Christian organizations to abide by tenets of their faith.” Or: “Tennessee governor affirms right of religious organizations to place children in homes with both a mother and a father.”
But no: The headline, of course, has to refer to this bill as an “anti-gay adoption bill,” which follows on the heels of similar laws passed in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, South Dakota, North Dakota, Virginia, Mississippi, and even Michigan. Governor Lee agreed to this, the AP noted ominously, “amid warnings by critics of possible negative consequences for Tennessee’s reputation.”
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I wonder who will be spearheading the efforts to smear Tennessee’s reputation.
These sorts of laws are necessary in 2020 because the LGBT movement wants to shut down every Christian organization that refuses to agree with their redefinition of marriage and family. In fact, the Trump Administration has proposed similar protections that would remove an Obama Administration rule prohibiting foster care agencies from receiving federal funds “if they discriminated against families based on sexual orientation and identity.”
Critics of religious liberty legislation claim that these laws only hurt children, limiting the number of homes that they can be placed in. This is nonsense. If their primary concern was for children, then the LGBT movement wouldn’t be willing to shut down entire adoption agencies for refusing to compromise their principles, but as Mary Eberstadt’s book It’s Dangerous to Believe highlights, they are more than willing to do so. That’s why the LGBT movement is willing to go so far as to attack the Salvation Army for being Christian: Because this is about forcing affirmation of their lifestyle practices at any cost—even if the brunt is borne by children, homeless people, and the hungry.
“People mystified by Evangelical support for Trump don’t seem to get the reason why, which is not that Evangelicals approve of his personal conduct,” Fox News host Brit Hume commented recently. “It is that they think he’s their enemy’s enemy and he’s willing to fight.” David French responded to him on Twitter, saying: “Brit, the very use of the word ‘enemy’ demonstrates the flaw in that reasoning. While there are extremists on both sides, fellow citizens who disagree about law and policy are not ‘enemies,’ and treating them as such is justifying a host of profound moral wrongs.”
I get what David French is saying, but I’m not sure many evangelicals agree with him. Are activists who wish to shut down Christian adoption agencies, bully Christian charities, defund churches, force their sexual views into Christian schools, and eliminate religious liberty the “enemies” of Christian communities? I think it is pretty hard to argue that they are not. In fact, I think the LGBT activists themselves would happily cop to this. And that is why many Christian voters see Donald Trump as the Roman emperor disinclined to persecute them—while Obama was happy to help those who wished to dismantle Christian communities.
This doesn’t mean that we can behave like them or even fight like them. They might despise us, but we are commanded by Scripture to love our enemies. But being genuinely honest about what they want to do to Christian communities and taking steps to protect ourselves is necessary, as well.
Jonathon’s new podcast, The Van Maren Show, is dedicated to telling the stories of the pro-life and pro-family movement. In his latest episode, he interviews Terry Schilling, Executive Director of the American Principles Project, an organization dedicated to supporting family values and their expression in politics. Today’s episode delves into the debate surrounding governmental regulations on pornography, the arguments from various sides, today’s laws, and what we can do to protect our children and save our culture. You can subscribe here and listen to the episode below:
