Our country is facing a culture war like we’ve never seen before. It boiled over a little bit this week when Chick-fil-A’s CEO was attacked by the LGBT and Hollywood communities for expressing an opinion about redefining marriage to accommodate the homosexual lifestyle. This post is my response.
My point, like that of many who agree with me, is that the LGBT community demands tolerance of their lifestyle to the point of being beligerant and hostile, even going so far as making threats of economic extortion against business owners. As a Christian and one who believes the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, I believe the warning God gives to those who are partaking in the homosexual lifestyle: that it is an abomination. However, sin is sin. And that includes fornication, adultery, drunkeness, debauchery, etc. – things society as a whole is guilty of.
God hates the sins each of us commits but He loves us dearly. So much so that He sent His Son to die for us. God’s Word clearly delineates right from wrong and the consequences of sin is death. That is God’s rule, not mine nor society’s.
Founding Father and educator Noah Webster (1758-1843) had this to say: “The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
I oppose redefining the definition of marriage, one that has stood the test of time since the word was first introduced into our lexicon in the 13th century (c.1300, “act of marrying, entry into wedlock;” also “state or condition of being husband and wife;” from O.Fr. mariage “marriage; dowry” (12c.), from V.L. *maritaticum (11c.), from L.maritatus, pp. of maritatre “to wed, marry, give in marriage”).
If our society wants to recognize gay relationships with civil ceremonies, civil rights, etc. that’s up to our political system to address. That discourse has no place in the marketplace.
My point related to “tolerance” is that the LGBT community & Hollywood wants to shove their message down our throats and then whine and complain if we push back. Then we’re called intolerant. Whatever happened to tolerance on both sides? All Mr. Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A, did was express a personal opinion. His company has absolutely no record of denying service, employment, etc. to anyone, regardless of their sexual orientation. For that opinion he was vilified by the LGBT and Hollywood communities and threatened with economic extortion by the mayors of several large cities.
I frankly don’t care what you do in your private life with another consenting adult. You’ll answer to God – not me – for your choices, just like I will for mine. But we are tired of being bullied for merely stating an opinion, something guaranteed by our Constitution. It’s called “free speech.”
We ALL need to step back and converse with one another like adults on issues we disagree on. That is tolerance. What is NOT tolerance is exemplified by a tweet sent by Roseanne Barr: “anyone who eats S— Fil-A deserves to get the cancer that is sure to come from eating antibiotic filled tortured chickens 4Christ.” How adult.
© Gary Stripling 2012
