Gene Linzey
After the eight-year War of Independence ended in 1784, the colonists were finally free! Well, I suppose they weren’t colonists any longer; they were citizens of a brand new country. But they were free!
They were free from tyranny. Free from taxation without representation. Free from the hated Redcoats! And free from a host of other problems — both real and imagined.
But what were they free to do?
They were free to worship according to conscience and free to choose their own religion, but let’s come back to that in a minute. What else were the colonists — I mean, Americans — free to do?
Political freedom was a major item. Not desiring any over-arching government, they wouldn’t bow to any state but their own. This was a problem because there were 13 new governments to consider. So the former colonies — now sovereign states — agreed to a limited government under a federation called The United States of America.
They were free to tax themselves with “inhouse” representation. That was a fight! The local towns didn’t want the states to tax them, and the states didn’t want the feds to tax them. They were also free to print their own money. Oops — that didn’t work too well. Each state created its own currency, with some states having several currencies. Banks issued their own money; and by 1836 over 1,600 banks were issuing thousands of varieties of paper money. Many of them were not “worth a continental.” Standardized currency wasn’t established 1929.
Back to freedom of religion.
In order to have a workable government, compromises are made. However, these concessions need to be in the civil arena, not in matters of faith. In colonial legislation, Thomas Jefferson said in the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (written in 1779):
“No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever … nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”
Jefferson made sure the First Amendment carried the same idea: “Congress shall make no law respecting until an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”
President Eisenhower said on Jan. 20, 1953, “History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.” And on Nov. 25, 1981, the United Nations General Assembly passed the “Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief.”
With that in mind, why is our government prohibiting the free exercise of the Christian religion? Why are we disregarding our religious freedoms that are protected in our own national documents? I am referring, of course, to openly reading and teaching from the Holy Bible.
When Scripture teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman, why do we cower before those who disagree? Without a constitutional amendment, Congress does not have the right to revoke our constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and deny my right to preach the truth as found in Scripture. I don’t hate homosexuals; I have worked alongside several, and some of my friends are homosexuals. There is no hate involved when I tell them that the Bible teaches against homosexuality. But hate is involved when gay people angrily hurl insults and epithets at me.
It is unconstitutional, immoral, and unethical to allow the gay person his first amendment rights but disallow the straight person the same rights. Gay folk have the freedom to speak their mind in the same way that I have the freedom to speak my mind without fear of reprisal. And whoever dares to eliminate my freedom does damage to our national Constitution.
Proverbs 25:26 says, “A good person who gives in to evil is like a muddy spring or dirty well.”
Christians have the same guaranteed, blood-bought, constitutional freedoms to teach and worship according to conscience, and to express our beliefs as does anyone else – including teaching the Biblical view of homosexuality. To deny that freedom would be discrimination, bigotry, intolerance, and anti-American. And remember, even the U.N. denounces intolerance — at least, on paper.
So respect those with whom you disagree; live according to Scriptural principles; and give thanks for our national and religious freedoms.