Losing the battle of ‘rights'

Major news outlets have been covering the actions of several state legislatures recently as they have considered, and sometimes passed, laws intended to protect religious people and organizations from being forced to participate in same-sex marriages.

From the typical liberal pulpits they report from, they have called such laws bigoted, and the states that consider passing such laws have faced enormous pressure from the media as well as major corporations, such as Walt Disney, who have threatened to pull their business from states that pass such laws.

Missouri is the amongst those considering such protections with Senate Joint Resolution 39. If passed, it would put the matter to the constituents to vote on whether to add such protections to the state’s constitution. And again, those who are pushing for such laws are called bigots.

Both the mainstream media and the corporate world are pushing hard to not only ensure that those who belong to the LGBT world are given the same rights as heterosexuals, but to force every man, woman and child who draws breath to fully support the extreme LGBT agenda.

Missouri’s SJR39, which was just recently condemned in an editorial by the Kansas City Star, is constructed similarly to other such laws that have been or are being considered. It covers four specific areas:

1. It protects a religious organization on the basis that the organization believes or acts in accordance with sincere religious belief concerning marriage between two persons of the same sex;

2. It protects clergy or other religious leaders who decline to perform, solemnize, or facilitate a marriage or ceremony between two persons of the same sex;

3. It protects churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other houses of worship who decline to make their facilities available for a marriage or ceremony between two persons of the same sex; and,

4. It protects individuals who decline to participate or provide goods and services of expressional or artistic creation, such as photographer or florist, for a wedding or reception for two persons of the same sex.

Now, I grant you, the debate over the fourth area has been churning for a few years now. Whether an individual who runs a business should have the right to turn down a customer based on religious beliefs is certainly worthy of such discussion. But that’s for another time.

What should alarm everyone the most, both religious and non-religious alike, is the vehement opposition to protections even for churches and clergy against penalties for refusing to officiate same-sex weddings. When those who are bound by oaths to uphold the teachings of the faith they belong to — whether it be Roman Catholic or any other Christian faith — are not protected against such things, how can the government be stopped from telling every single citizen how they must believe and act?

The extremists in the LGBT movement have shown that they will target those who object to their agenda. They will make a special trip to visit a baker or county clerk who the extremists know will turn them away, only to incite a legal battle and impose their will.

Without protections for our priests, bishops, and other religious leaders, it is only a matter of time before they are targeted. How long will it be before we see headlines of a Catholic priest is sued because he refused to officiate a same-sex wedding?

One can’t paint everyone with the same brush. Just as we can’t say that everyone who belongs to the Catholic faith is definitely a good person who is in communion with the Church, we also can’t label everyone who is homosexual as someone who pursues such an extreme agenda. There are good, loving people who belong to the LGBT community.

But as for the extremists, how far are we willing to retreat before our backs are at the edge of a cliff? When people of a certain belief or way of life object to protecting people of faith — especially clergy and other religious leaders —from participation in that way of life, it is then that they become the oppressors rather than the oppressed.