We are privileged, in the United States, to live in the land of the free, heirs of a noble amended Constitution. Our constitution is associated with a noble Declaration of Independence that proudly asserts “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….”. Our nation, in common with many other western developed nations, is bristling with anti-discrimination laws, regulations, rules, policies and case law that protect categories of persons deemed to be at risk of discrimination determined by contemporary discrimination policy. This has been a good thing in the past, but are once benevolent concepts morphing into intolerantly liberal extremes?
In our care to eliminate discrimination, are we becoming indiscriminate? Have we become so eager to stamp out the evils of discrimination that we are drifting, unchecked, into the error of presuming that all discriminating stances are wrong? One could be forgiven for summarizing that contemporary anti-discrimination policy supports a position whereby moral standards based on immutable principles of right and wrong are deemed misguided or harmful.
We need to ask ourselves whether the social pendulum of political correctness has already swung too far if a house advertisement promoting the close proximity of a neighborhood church is suspect for being possibly discriminatory; when it has become potentially discriminatory to display or refer to a biologically female human as ‘she’ or a biologically male human as ‘he’.
The US Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. It must be asked however, whether there is still the freedom to sincerely believe – and express the belief – that there is only one true God in heaven, and that His only son is Jesus Christ the Lord, worshipped as God by Christians. Is it still permissible to explain the christian doctrines that categorize lying, stealing, murder, or indeed, the refusal to accept Jesus Christ as one’s Savior, as sins? Is it a hate crime to explain that you are devoted to a God who has revealed in His word – the Bible – that He hates sin – in whatever form – but that He loves the sinner, as you also aspire to do?
Has it become discriminatory to insist that God made humans as either male or female – regardless of the fact that some humans are born with sexual organs or elements of sexual organs associated with both sexes? Is it now deemed hateful to insist that God ordained the covenantal relationship properly referred to as marriage exclusively to be between one man and one woman. What if you believe that sexual relations or intimate co-habitation between parties of any sex outside of marriage, or between parties of the same sex whether within or without a mutually monogamous relationship is sinful – though you acknowledge the right of every human being to chose to live other than in accordance with those same beliefs. Are you risking possible contraventions of contemporary law and policy by persisting in such beliefs?
These are confronting questions, but they must be asked. Compelling considerations, they are relevant regardless of whether we are ‘merely’ drifting towards or have actually arrived at the point where the answer to such questions is a ‘yes’. As Christians at this point in history, we need to be both alert to a changing society, yet adamantly unwilling to compromise our commitment to what is unshakably true. It is an immutable reality that there are absolute truths, and that such truths remains true regardless of changes in location, society, history, or time.
I for one am willing to defend what are becoming more and more widely regarded as starkly discriminating beliefs. True, it is not a comfortable position, but how infinitely worse to be coerced to exchange heartfelt beliefs for politically correct dictates. Understandable as such a short sighted choice as the latter might be, even more daunting must be the truth that there will be, one day, a sorting of ‘sheep’ (sincere believers) and ‘goats’ (unbelievers).
We don’t want to make the wrong call here. Word is that no sellout on earth, however sincere or politically correct, will shield from the eternally tragic consequences of a misguided choice.
So, be discriminating – make the right choice.
(first posted 09/03/2014; 709 words)