Monday, March 03, 2014

American Decline: Obama's Gay Agenda vs Christians

As most church leaders model cowardice, and their flocks dutifully follow, ravenous wolves are poised to devour America's First Amendment religious liberty. Because millions of Christians refuse to risk the inevitable persecution of standing on the foundation built by the God-fearing framers of the Constitution, nine unelected jurists will soon outlaw the Great Commission.

UPDATE 9/29/15 - President Obama Speech: Gay Agenda Trumps Christianity

UPDATE 7/28/15: Gay Agenda Destroys Everything it Contacts

UPDATE 6/27/15: President Obama's Gay 'Untied' States of America

UPDATE 2/18/15: President Obama Ignores Hate Crimes Against U.S. Christians

UPDATE 2/11/15: President Obama = Liar in Chief RE 'Gay Marriage'

UPDATE 2/6/15: President Obama Compares Christians to Islamic Terrorists

UPDATE 2/1/15: Mrs. Obama Thanks Hollywood for Gay Indoctrination

UPDATE 12/25/14: President Obama's Christmas — Behold, a Message is Born

UPDATE 10/19/14: Idaho Pastors Face Fines, Jail for Refusing 'Gay Wedding'

UPDATE 7/15/14: President Obama Favors the One Percenters (Homosexuals)

UPDATE 7/5/14: Obama Provokes Second 'In God We Trust' Movement

UPDATE 4/24/15: Congressional Democrat leader Steny Hoyer Says Same-Sex Couples Are Endowed ‘By God’ With Right to Marry (video):

For background, click headlines below to read previous articles:

Senator Ted Cruz Says Gay Agenda Ends Christian Liberty

Homosexualists Admit Goal to End Religious Liberty: Arizona Bill

Republican Party Strategy: Dump Old Uneducated Christian Voters

Lawless Obama Administration: States Should Violate Oath for Gays

President Obama's Pentagon Says Following Jesus' Command is a Court Martial Offense

Supreme Court Repeatedly Enables Gay Agenda

Christians Snooze as Same-sex 'Marriage' Sweeps Nation

America Going to Hell; Christians Lose Convictions

UPDATE 8/15/14: Study Finds Pastors Conceal Culture Truth to be Successful

-- From "Who's behind 'religious freedom' push? The answer is hard to find" by Greg Botelho, CNN 2/27/14

Arizona's divisive SB1026 -- which supporters claim protected religious freedom, and critics say served as cover for businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians -- didn't come from nowhere. . . . But from where, or from whom, did the impetus come?

It took time to hash out among both state lawmakers and interest groups. In this case, advocates from the Arizona Center for Policy and Alliance Defending Freedom -- whose website says it "coordinates legal efforts (for) Christian legal and policy organizations" all across the United States and in 31 countries -- were among those who played a part in crafting the legislation.

But from where, or from whom, did the impetus come? And who paid for the Arizona push and similar ones in a host of other states?

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Georgia lawmakers pushing for religious liberty bills" by Jon Gillooly, Marietta Daily Journal 3/2/14

. . . state Rep. Sam Teasley (R-Marietta) and state Sen. Joshua McKoon (R-Columbus) [say] their religious liberty bills filed this session . . . have been ripped by critics for targeting gay people, a charge the lawmakers deny.

The Georgia Municipal Association and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia have also opposed the bills. McKoon said cities and counties have been able to enact rules and policies hostile to religious liberty.

Major companies such as Delta Air Lines have wrongly denounced the bills, Teasley said he believes, because they haven’t bothered to take the time to understand them.

Mike Griffin, lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Convention, said a conversation is underway among conservative groups about conducting an economic boycott of companies such as Delta and Home Depot for opposing the bills.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "31 states have heightened religious freedom protections" by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post 3/1/14

. . . 18 of which passed state laws based on the 1993 federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act [RFRA]. The protections in an additional 13 states came through court rulings.

"These state RFRAs were enacted in response to Supreme Court decisions that had nothing to do with gay rights or same-sex marriage," explained University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock in an e-mail. "And the state court decisions interpreting their state constitutions arose in all sorts of contexts, mostly far removed from  gay rights or same-sex marriage. There were cases about Amish buggies, hunting moose for native Alaskan funeral rituals, an attempt to take a church  building by eminent domain, landmark laws that prohibited churches from modifying their buildings – all sorts of diverse conflicts between religious practice and pervasive regulation."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Kansas Senate balks at religious liberty bill" by Brad Cooper, The Kansas City Star 2/13/14

Senate President Susan Wagle [R] took the unusual step Thursday night of issuing a statement saying the bill — which has drawn an avalanche of national criticism — didn’t have the support of a majority of Republicans in her chamber.

The Kansas House passed the bill Wednesday, spurring a national outcry that it was tantamount to state-sanctioned discrimination. The critics gained traction on social media, where a Facebook page set up opposing the measure received nearly 40,000 “likes” by late Thursday.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Kansas Senate Refuses to Consider 'Religious Liberty' Bill for Gay Marriage" by Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter 2/20/14

After House Bill 2453 passed the House, Senate Vice President Jeff King (R-Independence) announced that the Senate would not be considering the bill, saying briefly that the bill was "kaput." King went on to assure concerned Kansas residents that religious exemptions regarding same-sex marriage will be addressed next month during Senate hearings.

Those supporting the bill argued in response that although the legislation was vilified as being discriminatory and ultimately killed, it is still necessary for legislators in the state to pursue protection of religious liberty as the possibility of same-sex marriage legalization looms in the future.

When the bill first passed the House Committee, Gov. Sam Brownback said he was a "strong proponent and supporter for religious liberty."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Indiana dips toe in national debate over religious liberty, discrimination" by Dan Carden, (Northwest Indiana) NWI Times 3/3/14

It started innocently enough, according to House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis.

Indiana Wesleyan University, a Christian college with a Merrillville location that hires employees on the basis of religion — as permitted by federal law — wanted to continue receiving state workforce training grants.

So state Rep. Eric Turner, R-Cicero, suggested adding a provision to Senate Bill 367 that would permit religious entities to receive state contracts even if they discriminate in hiring based on religion. The proposal was approved 6-5 Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Faced with the prospect of Indiana being lumped with Arizona on the religious discrimination issue, Bosma sent Senate Bill 367 back to the Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. The panel deleted the provision allowing state contractors to discriminate in hiring based on religion.

"It's not a productive discussion right now given what's happening in some other states," Bosma said.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "The Citizens United of the Culture Wars" by Gabriel Arana, The American Prospect 2/28/14

The failure of these anti-gay discrimination bills amounts to a stern rebuke to the religious right, which sees defeat on the horizon in the gay-marriage fight. . . .

The ease of this win came as a surprise of some gay-rights supporters, accustomed to waging years-long guerrilla warfare in states across the country. . . . Marci A. Hamilton, a professor of law at Cordoza Law School who advises lawmakers on Church-State issues, says social conservatives fundamentally misread the public's appetite for such laws. "I don't expect these laws to make it and I don't expect there to be much more on this issue,” Hamilton says. "The window for getting laws to discriminate against gays and lesbians has essentially closed.”

. . . The challenge to the contraception mandate in Sebelius vs. Hobby Lobby, scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court next month, shares the same rationale as the Arizona law: That for-profit companies and employees should be exempt from laws that conflict with their religious beliefs. "It's really important to connect what's going on in Arizona with the Hobby Lobby case," says Sally Steenland, director of the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. "It's giving religious liberty to for-profit corporations, which has never been done and has no precedent, and allowing them to pick and choose which laws they want to obey."

To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.

From "Our legal heritage favors religious freedom" by Dwight G. Duncan, University of Massachusetts Law school, posted at the Boston Globe 3/2/14

The argument has been made that since corporations don’t go to heaven or hell, family businesses should not be able to freely exercise religion. This argument is flawed in many ways. It also ignores our own legal history, which is replete with examples where corporate charters have indeed been legal vehicles for the practice of religion.

During the colonial period, those in dissent from the established Anglican Church were able to use existing civil and secular legal entities to create a space to practice their religion in accord with the dictates of their consciences.

In Massachusetts, the colonial Legislature in 1692 approved a law mandating that each town use general taxation to provide for an “able, learned orthodox minister” of the Congregational church. In 1728, the Legislature granted an exemption from taxes to support local Congregational ministers to Baptists and Quakers, but they had to get a special certificate denoting their status from their town clerks.

To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.

Also read Supreme Court Rules Bible as 'Hate Speech' in Canada as well as European Union High Court Rules Gay Agenda Trumps Christianity

In addition, read Corporation Opposes Gay Agenda, Causes Media Storm

For further background, read President Obama Raises Gay Agenda above Religious Liberty

And read how
President Obama, et. al., have mounted a massive Gay Agenda assault on America's First Amendment religious liberty through the military, and the Dept. of Justice, and the court system nationwide.  For example, read about
President Obama's hypocritical speech at his recent annual National Prayer Breakfast.

UPDATE 3/28/14: American decline is result of President Obama's Gay Agenda & equality utopianism (video:)
Click for FOX News video