Since When Does the Government Control the Church?
So there's this article out about how the city of Austin, Texas made a law that no one can discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity when they hire someone. And they do not even allow exemptions for the church. Therefore, the church has to hire people who it feels are unqualified to lead in church. It has to go against the Bible.
Since when does the state own the church in America? Since when does the state get to enforce its laws on the church in America? When did the state get the right to take over the church and tell them how to do things?
This is not a communist country. This country was founded on the right to practice your faith free from over-reaching governmental control. That's what the "separation of church and state" is about. It's not to protect the state from the church, but to protect the church from the state. To protect the church from becoming a governmental institution, from losing its right to serve God as it believes it's supposed to.
We are not a communist state. But we are sure headed in that direction ... all in the name of tolerance and love and "the values of our culture." Values that the state has determined and feels they have to right to force on others.
When the state starts squashing the rights of people (of churches) to practice their faith and live by their own values, it doesn't end well.
And then what happens when a different cultural value system arises, such as a hyper-religious, super-legalistic system? Or an atheistic value system? Or some other super-biased value system? Are we all going to be forced to fall in line because "the government said so"? Because we lost our rights to live any other way than how the government tells us to?
But I'm not a Christian, you might think, so I don't care.
Do not be fooled into thinking this won't affect you or your rights just because you're not Christian. This is not just an attack on the church, on Christian values. It's an attack on democracy. On freedom. On the right to make your own decisions without governmental interference and control.
Do you want the government to have the right to tell you how to act, which values to have, how to run your private business or organization, who to worship, how to worship? When will you get punished ... simply for making a perfectly-reasonable decision, but one that your over-reaching, domineering, communistic government didn't like?
You can't take away the rights of others to make their own decisions without also taking away your own!
When the government interferes with our right to peacefully live out our faith and to make our own decisions based on sincerely-held values (even if it's different than the dominating culture's values), then we are no longer free. We are no longer a democratic nation.
We are no longer America!
Since when does the state own the church in America? Since when does the state get to enforce its laws on the church in America? When did the state get the right to take over the church and tell them how to do things?
This is not a communist country. This country was founded on the right to practice your faith free from over-reaching governmental control. That's what the "separation of church and state" is about. It's not to protect the state from the church, but to protect the church from the state. To protect the church from becoming a governmental institution, from losing its right to serve God as it believes it's supposed to.
We are not a communist state. But we are sure headed in that direction ... all in the name of tolerance and love and "the values of our culture." Values that the state has determined and feels they have to right to force on others.
When the state starts squashing the rights of people (of churches) to practice their faith and live by their own values, it doesn't end well.
And then what happens when a different cultural value system arises, such as a hyper-religious, super-legalistic system? Or an atheistic value system? Or some other super-biased value system? Are we all going to be forced to fall in line because "the government said so"? Because we lost our rights to live any other way than how the government tells us to?
But I'm not a Christian, you might think, so I don't care.
Do not be fooled into thinking this won't affect you or your rights just because you're not Christian. This is not just an attack on the church, on Christian values. It's an attack on democracy. On freedom. On the right to make your own decisions without governmental interference and control.
Do you want the government to have the right to tell you how to act, which values to have, how to run your private business or organization, who to worship, how to worship? When will you get punished ... simply for making a perfectly-reasonable decision, but one that your over-reaching, domineering, communistic government didn't like?
You can't take away the rights of others to make their own decisions without also taking away your own!
When the government interferes with our right to peacefully live out our faith and to make our own decisions based on sincerely-held values (even if it's different than the dominating culture's values), then we are no longer free. We are no longer a democratic nation.
We are no longer America!
