Several events in the news lately may be seemingly unrelated to a lot of people. One of the news items is tennis great Martina Navratilova being dropped from the LGBT group Athlete Ally.1 She spoke out against men calling themselves women and then competing against women. Navratilova gets that. She understands she would not have wanted to compete against men calling themselves women. What she may not understand is that she helped lay the groundwork for this absurdity by coming out as a lesbian and helping making these “alternative lifestyles” acceptable to people. These “alternative lifestyles” are actually anti-biblical lifestyles.
WOAI 1200 here in San Antonio reported on a bill in the Texas legislature that would protect business owners from the LGBTQIA (they keep adding letters) agenda.2 Jim Forsyth of WOAI inaccurately reported what the bill was for, saying that business owners could refuse service to people in the LGBTQ community because of their “lifestyle.” The reality is that business owners do not ask people about their lifestyles when they come in to buy something. If someone comes in to buy something, they can. But the LGBTQIA community wants to compel business owners to cater same-sex “weddings” – something that some business owners understand is impossible because a marriage is between a man and a woman. That brings me to the next item.
Larry Elder had on his program Colorado baker Jack Phillips and Phillip’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner; who had won a Supreme Court case regarding the Colorado Human Rights Commission bringing action against Jack Phillips for not baking a cake for a same-sex “wedding.”3 The very next day a lawyer called Phillips up asking him to make a “transgender transition” cake – blue on the outside and pink on the inside. Phillips was also asked make a cake for Satan’s birthday. They were obviously targeting Phillips for having a biblical understanding of marriage and sexuality. That is what the Texas bill is about – protecting the Jack Phillipses of the world.
Houston has had a battle over “Drag Queen Story Time Hour” – an effort to normalize the LGBTQ lifestyle to children.4 Actually, this effort can be more accurately described as indoctrination, given that an alternative children’s Bible story event was not allowed because “no religious content is allowed.” 5 In Iowa, a prison employee that decided she was a man won a $120,000 judgment for not being allowed to use men’s restrooms and men’s locker rooms, even though single-occupancy bathrooms were provided (evidently not convenient enough); and “his male gender identity wasn’t accepted.”6
New York passed a law allowing for late term abortions.7 A Born Alive Survivors Protection Act was introduced in Congress – which addresses doctors letting babies die when an abortion fails to kill the baby.8 Virginia Governor Northam had even made comments supporting letting babies die. But the bill was blocked.9 The Texas Legislature introduced a similar bill to protect babies born alive.10
The United Methodist Church did vote for the Traditional Plan – a biblical stand on marriage and sexuality.11 But the vote was much closer than it should have been – 438-384.12
Schools have largely become institutions to indoctrinate school children in socialistic, secular humanistic, post-modernistic philosophy.13 Maine actually had a bill to stop this indoctrination and using children as “pawns.”14 But the bill did not pass.
Fox News suspended Judge Jeanine Pirro for connecting Congresswoman Omar’s anti-Israel statements with her Islamic faith.15 The news media and social media are taking snippets of an opening statement made by Pirro; making it sound as if Pirro was questioning Omar’s allegiance just because Omar wears a hijab (head covering).16 Pirro’s opening statement needs to be heard in its entirety.17 It was not just about Omar wearing a hijab.
On the same Larry Elder program that had Jack Phillips, Larry Elder interviewed David Horowitz. Horowitz discussed the attack on Christianity in this country, citing the action taken against the Little Sisters of the Poor.18 I find it very interesting that Horowitz (who described himself as an agnostic Jew) understands what many professing Christians do not understand – the importance of Christianity in the formation of this country; and the current attack on Christianity in this country. He understands the LGBTQ agenda, the abortion movement, the social justice movement and the attempt to remove God and the Bible from our nation’s history are all connected.
I know from what I have learned that this is all connected. The common thread in all of this is that people do not believe the Bible. II Kings 17 describes the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel due to their rebellion against God. Idol worship and child sacrifice are listed among the sins. But the verse that sums it up is 13:
Again and again the Lord had sent his prophets and seers to warn both Israel and Judah: “Turn from all your evil ways. Obey my commands and decrees—the entire law that I commanded your ancestors to obey, and that I gave you through my servants the prophets.” II Kings 17:13 NIV
In other words, people were not paying attention to God’s word. When God referred to the “entire law,” what did He refer to? He referred to the Law Books that He gave to us through Moses – starting with Genesis. II Kings 22 describes how in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, they had found the Book of the Law after losing it entirely.19 We cannot get it right unless we start there. That is where we learn who God is, and who we are.
Terry Read