Will Talking About Biblical Marriage Soon Be Classified as Hate Speech?

By Alex Murashko, Christian Post Reporter

July 31, 2013|8:33 am

Anderson points out that despite the fact that advocates of redefining marriage argue that the First Amendment ensures that pastors and other clergy in the U.S. will remain free to preach what they want to and never be forced to celebrate a same-sex wedding, there are indications that same-sex marriage will be normalized.

“…if marriage is redefined, then a belief that marriage is the union of a man and a woman ordered to procreation and family life – a notion once shared by virtually every human society – would increasingly be characterized as an irrational prejudice that ought to be driven to the margins of culture,” Anderson states. “The consequences for religious believers are becoming apparent.”

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Anderson also writes that there are many documented instances in the U.S. in which laws forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation, as well as laws redefining marriage, have already eroded religious liberty and the rights of conscience. He uses the examples already laid out by Thomas Messner, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, which show that religious liberty and the rights of conscience eroding:

After Massachusetts redefined marriage to include same-sex relationships, Catholic Charities of Boston faced a mandate to place children with same-sex couples. Rather than go against its principles, Catholic Charities decided to get out of the adoption business – a move that helps neither the orphans nor society. When Massachusetts public schools began teaching grade-school students about same-sex marriage, the town of Lexington’s school superintendent, Paul Ash, defended the decision to the Boston Globe with this statement: “Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal.” A Massachusetts appellate court ruled that parents have no right to exempt their children from these classes.

The New Mexico Human Rights Commission prosecuted a photographer for declining to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony.” Doctors in California were successfully sued for declining to perform an artificial insemination on a woman in a same-sex relationship. Owners of a bed-and-breakfast in Illinois who declined to rent their facility for a same-sex civil-union ceremony and reception were sued for violating the state nondiscrimination law. A Georgia wellness counselor was fired after she referred someone in a same-sex relationship to another counselor.

Anderson adds that in fact, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty reports that “over 350 separate state anti-discrimination provisions would likely be triggered by recognition of same-sex marriage.”

Full article here

This is interesting enough to split into it’s on topic. Original thread was here:

Five Gay Marriage Myths

God bless,

GE

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Source: Worthy Christian Forums

Hebrews 9:15 NIV: For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Here the scripture reveals to us that it was not until Christ died at the close of the Old Testament that the price for sins in the Old Testament was paid.

In other words, a debt of sin was accumulating from the time of Adam (Gen.3:1-21) in the Garden of Eden: so even though God forgave the sins of men and temporarily covered them with blood of animals that were killed, the actual price for sin was not paid until the Lord Jesus, suffered and died for our sins.

This truth is shown in

Hebrews 9:7-9 NIV: But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. (8) The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. (9) This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.

Hebrews 10:4-14 NIV: because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (5) Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; (6) with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. (7) Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.'” (8) First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). (9) Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. (10) And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (11) Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. (12) But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. (13) Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, (14) because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

That is why the Old Testament saints did not go to heaven but to Abraham’s bosom under the earth, until after the Lord …read more