On June 1st of this year our president declared June to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and transgender pride month by issuing a presidential proclamation stating the following:
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
BARACK OBAMA
You can read the entire press release at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-LGBT-Pride-Month/
This proclamation came without much media coverage and has garnered very little attention. Some might question what the big deal is… Here are four thoughts.
1. Homosexuality Is A Sin!
The Bible is explicit about the fact that those who choose to practice homosexuality are embracing a lifestyle of sin. Paul says, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders” (1Cor. 6:9). It doesn’t matter how you feel about the issue. God has clearly spoken.
In the proclamation our president states:
“I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security.”
What exactly does the decriminalization of homosexuality mean? I know that current “hate crime” legalization set to go before the US Congress could criminalize any mention within a church as to the sinfulness of homosexuality. I know that there are states that have introduced measures to make it a “hate crime” for a minister not to perform a homosexual marriage.
Many feel that it is not the place of government to legislate morality on its people. Regardless your thoughts on that matter, it does fall upon the church to preach God’s morality and to set the moral temperature of culture. Our current silence is damning our nation. If the homosexual community has its way, they would silence the church indefinitely.
2. Everyone Deserves Equal Rights Not Extra Rights!
The president calls, “upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.” Make no mistake; our creator endows every one of us regardless of who you are or how you label yourself with “certain inalienable rights”. That is what makes America great. We receive those rights because we are His children not because of our choices. No one should ever be denied those rights. However when we move into granting extra rights I have to take exception. If someone receives a position, promotion, payment, or privilege simply because they have chosen to make a lifestyle choice different from someone else, that’s wrong. Equal rights…sure. Extra rights…no way!
3. Lifestyle Choices Are Not The Same As Gender Or Race
Our president has called “upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Race is a matter of simple genetics; homosexuality is simply a choice. The two are not equal. This is not the civil rights movement of our day. The homosexual community has done a fantastic job trying to make this case. It’s illogical at best, offensive at worst.
4. We Must Take Care Not To Celebrate Sin
Our president takes great pride in embracing the homosexual community stating, “I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions.” I feel we are on a very slippery slope. As a nation when we come to the place where don’t just allow homosexuality but we embrace it and celebrate it we are in danger of eroding at the core.
Paul cautioned the Romans:
Rom. 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.
Rom. 1:26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Rom. 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind
Sexual sins (adultery, lust, prostitution, premarital sex and homosexuality) destroy the spiritual life of an individual. As Paul also warns, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body” (Cor. 6:18).
If we as a nation embrace, celebrate, and propagate sexual perversion we sin against ourselves and we will receive the penalty due to us; God will turn us over to depravity and a curse will come upon our land.
You are free within our nation to choose your lifestyle…just don’t ask our nation to choose your lifestyle.
Final Remarks…
Do not choose to make the mistake of reading this as hate speech. As a pastor I have chosen to love all people. I love you! I do not hate you. I have worked with and continue to work with men and women who are in, trying to come out and have come out of their homosexuality.
I am not self righteous or judgmental. For we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus loves you…and He demonstrated His love for you by dying for you even when you were lost and dead in your sin. He took your sin, my sin upon Himself and crucified it on the cross. Because of Jesus there is hope and there is life for all who call on the name Jesus!
I am marking myself with this post; crippling any political ambitions I may have for the future. It’s a shame… I’m in the silent majority, most of the nation feels the way I do. Though unlike the rest, I have no problem parting the politeness of political-correctness by exercising my own personal right to free speech. If more of us would do the same, I believe we could see positive change in our nation. The kind of change we all can believe in. If we continue to remain silent, if we continue to ignore, if we continue in apathy we will watch our nation slip away from the foundations that made it great.
pdk, can I post this in my notes section on facebook; of course giving you credit?
You don’t even have to ask…
interesting post. i would say two things.
1) i think most evidence points that homosexuality isnt a lifestyle choice, but overwhelmingly science shows us that some people have some genetic/environmental/epigenetic predisposition to be attracted to the same sex.
2) i think we’ve been too quick to quote romans 1, and then leave behind romans 2:
“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things…Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”
you highlight that at the conclusion. but in this case, we cant simply “love the sinner, hate the sin” because sexually identity goes to the core of who a person is.
I am honored to be graced by the great Sam Martinez! Hope things are going well in Dallas. I appreciate your thoughts. To fully clarify, my post was directed at the nation not the individual. I truly am worried about what happens in society when we embrace and celebrate sin on a national level. As pastors, we both understand the spiritual principles at work. Balaam taught the Moabites how to bring the nation of Israel under a curse by enticing them into sexual immorality (Rev 2:14). I find the presidential proclamation to be worrisome, especially when it is witnessed “in the year of our Lord” . Romans 1 is the perfect passage to address where we are as a nation.
As for the individual… We all come into the this world predisposed for sin. That wasn’t our choice. Thank God that we have the opportunity to experience His grace before His righteous judgement because “God’s kindness leads you towards repentance.”
For those who love history and philosophy, I recommend you taking a look at Francis Schaefer, “How Should We Then Live.” He gives a wonderful perspective on where we’ve been and where we are going in society.
As a matter of substance, thanks for your support for equal rights for GLBT Americans. (“Equal rights…sure”). That is all ANYONE in the GLBT Civil RIght movement is seeking. I defy you to point out one “special” right sought by this movement.
Also, you are factually wrong about people choosing to be gay. There is no debate here – it is like arguing that the world is flat. It makes you look dumb – and like you are grasping for arguments to support your religious views.
And that brings us to your first and fourth points. Besides being essentially the same argument (“It’s a sin”), they are clearly based on your religious views. But our Founding Fathers risked everything (including their lives) to establish a country based on the rule of law, not the rule of religion. And while I (and many Christians) respectfully disagree with your reading of the Bible, and many other religions disagree with your position on gays, you must agree that if no one is to have special rights, then surly you are not asserting that our government should follow your religious view to the exclusion of all others, are you? To that I say “Extra rights… no way!”
Scott, thanks for taking the time to post a comment.
I love blogs because the dialogue helps to flesh out the author’s primary intent. Once again my post is concerning the spiritual implications for our nation as a whole. There are plenty of sites out there to debate what this means to the individual, one day I may post into that debate.
I make no apologies for deep “religious” convictions that are based on faith in the infallibility of scripture. You may not hold that view; in a postmodern relativistic society I understand the worldview that allows that. However this temporal world will one day pass away and each of us will be judged according to God’s eternal law. That’s His job, not mine. I am merely restating what is clearly stated in God’s word. This side of eternity that may not mean much to many of us…on the other side, it means everything.
Since Scott asked, I want to further clarify two points …
“LIFESTYLE CHOICES ARE NOT THE SAME AS GENDER OR RACE”
In 2000 the American Psychiatric Association concluded “There are no replicated scientific studies supporting any specific biological etiology for homosexuality”(Fact Sheet on Sexual Orientation). This year the Human Genome Project produced major headlines when it reached the conclusion that homosexuality is not “hard wired” into the human genome. As a matter of common sense, and 10th grade biology, if it were simply genetics – a genetic trait that could not propagate itself into the next generation would extinguish itself from the human race.
There is no conclusive science to support, “I was born this way”. (Spiritual, we are all born sinners).
My point is that a lifestyle choice is not the same as Gender or Race; which by the way is easily identified in observation and genetics. To equate the two as being the same is, “illogical at best, offensive at worst.”
“EVERYONE DESERVES EQUAL RIGHTS NOT EXTRA RIGHTS!”
Rights are a matter of individuality, not identity. To ask for identity rights is a slippery slope. There are two areas push the envelope on what would qualify as extra rights based on identity instead of individuality.
The first is “gay-marriage”. Marriage is a sacred spiritual union that first an institution upheld be the church not the state. It isn’t a states right, it’s a spiritual right. Instead of going on…I point you to my post on the desecration of marriage http://www.dknorris.com/2009/04/the-desecration-of-marriage/
The second concerns hate crime legislation. Let me begin by saying that no one should have a crime perpetrated against them for any reason. Were I to witness an incident where a gay man was being harassed, or worst beaten, I would be the first to come to his defense. Not because he is gay, but because he is human. Bills should be written from that standpoint. Current laws if enforced do provide equal protection. This being the case, I have to ask the question…what is the true purpose of a new hate-crime bills. The most likely conclusion is to silence those that appear to oppose what some have embraced as their identity. (I know it doesn’t make any sense).
Let’s not confuse rights with freedoms. This is a stupid analogy, but in absurdity I believe you’ll clearly see the point. In America you are free to be a drunk. That freedom doesn’t equate into a “Right”. Could you imagine in our Bill of Rights, “The right to bear beers”? J
Thank God that in America, you are free to choose how you want to live… but when your freedom to choose begins to infringe on someone else’s right the line has to be drawn. When a drunk gets behind the wheel, it’s time to take away his freedom because he’s infringing on the right to life of everyone on the road.
I know it’s absurd but it frames my point of view. When you ask to the right to your freedom at the expense of my right free speech that’s pushing it.
There have been bills introduced that would even make this dialogue hate speech. This post would be evidence to prosecute me perhaps even imprison me. As an American I am baffled that we could be facing a day where a minister who preaches the gospel in America could be imprisoned (Prophetically, I know that these days must come).
thank you, your holiness rev. norris.
the legal/civil side of the debate isnt one i’ve really developed much.
would you say its a states-rights issues?
You know the Texan in me wants to jump right into state’s sovereign rights. But the pastor in me has to go back to the… This is truly a spiritual issue.
SIN period causes DEATH,and clearly homosexuality is SIN as Romans and Corinthians makes clear. So why would we celebrate Sin,do we celebrate when someone is murdered? Do we celebrate when someone has committed adultery and there family is destroyed? NO,we don’t. When a child is taken and raped and beaten because someone may say its in my family history or genetics,or God made me do it. It is demonic,it is not from God and neither is homosexuality.God gives a choice,a free will.You may say,I have always felt that I was gay. We can’t go by a feeling and embrace it. I have felt like killing my husband before because of a feeling but didn’t act on it,there would have been consequences. The consequence of homosexuality is HELL and separation from God.It is real and God is not a man that HE should lie. It is an abomination. I pray that the back of perversion would be broken today in Jesus name.God loves all people,but hates ALL sin. I pray God will remove the veil of deception from AMERICA.
amen to boldness! the truth is what sets us free.
you are totally right i loved it i am trying to bring my gay sister to God