Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
If you deny equal rights to all gays and lesbians,
If you deny equal rights to all gays and lesbians,
including the right to marry, you deny the Declaration of Independence.
Well, this one surprised me! Although I have been giving this some thought; does the recognition of gay marriage by the state in anyway infringe on the right of a pastor not to perform the ceremony? If the state allows for a pastor's conscience in the matter, then maybe Christians shouldn't get too worked up about it. If pastors end up going to jail over it, THEN maybe they can finally claim persecution.
ReplyDeleteGuess that's another "conservative" issue that's not so important to me anymore. Whee!!! This is getting downright liberating! :)
Let's face it, the doctrine of "rights" embodied in our country's founding documents is a great shibboleth for the American Church. We take the Declaration's word for it that God has endowed us with "rights"...and know nothing of what His word teaches on that subject.
ReplyDeleteIs any monstrous evil of our time put forward except as a matter of "rights"...gay rights, gun rights, smokers' rights, abortion rights ? We even hear demands that Christians be accorded their "rights"...as if servants under God's rule were ENTITLED, and could charge Him with unfairness !!
An unpopular message, that citizens of the Kingdom have NO "rights"...but so it is.
In Jesus, Steve
And where do we get the idea that we should be concerned over what the fallen world does? And if we are completely free in Christ, who can take that away? And when did we stop believing Peter when he clearly taught us, through the inspiration of the Spirit, that persecution presents a wonderful and sacred opportunity to reveal Christ in a dramatic and observable way?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your words today about the (lack of) teaching of the cross, this seemed to tie in. Embracing our secular "liberty" (not quite what scripture means by that word) and "rights" (likewise) is the opposite of embracing the cross: as you say, the witness God gives us in persecution, shame, death...
ReplyDeleteSteve