UPDATE - I call it hypocrisy but whatever it is, it worked for the anti-gay right. World Vision has reversed its decision.
When World Vision, a Christian ministry, made the recent decision to employ Christians married in gay relationships, I knew the blow back would be hostile amongst religious right groups.
But from how some anti-gay groups are describing this decision, one would think God is going to unleash all of the 10 plagues of Egypt at the same time:
When World Vision, a Christian ministry, made the recent decision to employ Christians married in gay relationships, I knew the blow back would be hostile amongst religious right groups.
But from how some anti-gay groups are describing this decision, one would think God is going to unleash all of the 10 plagues of Egypt at the same time:
And then:
Last, but certainly not least, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:
This isn't neutrality -- it's open rebellion. If we're going to follow Christ, we need to follow Him in every aspect -- including the biblical design for the family. And while there are several areas of Scripture that are open to interpretation, this isn't one of them. "Children," writes The Gospel Coalition's Trevin Wax, "are the ones who suffer when organizations like World Vision, under the guise of neutrality, adopt policies that enshrine a false definition of marriage in the very statement that says no position will be taken.
I have one question. Wasn't World Vision's decision an act of "religious liberty?" Wasn't it an act of a religious body being able to make its own decision without being cajoled, but according to its conscience and deeply held personal beliefs?
So what's with all of the cries of doom and cataclysm? What's with the weeping and gnashing of teeth? Don't get me wrong. I can understand how some folks may disagree with World Vision's decision, but after all of the fuss they created in attempting to enshrine anti-gay discrimination under the banner of "religious liberty," anti-gay groups and spokespeople are coming across as highly hypocritical.
The least they could have done was to say "we don't agree with this but in the spirit of religious liberty, we respect the decision of World Vision."
Instead, we get this talk of Satan, and the "mark of the beast," and inferences of open rebellion against 'God's plan."
Of course that last inference has always been hilarious to me because every time I hear anti-gay personalities speaking it, I take to scanning the Bible. To this day, I have yet to find a passage saying that God has appointed them as his moral squad.
What this ridiculous non-controversy proves is something we always knew. Anti-gay groups don't really believe in religious liberty. They believe in religious liberty for themselves and those who believe as they do, but with that belief comes another belief that their interpretations of Scriptures and the decisions they make in accordance to these interpretations are the only ones which matter.
That has nothing to do with religious liberty but everything to do with being selfish and self-righteous - two very un-Christian qualities to possess.
3 comments:
Remember, these are people who suddenly don't even care much for the Pope, just because he said, "Who am I to judge?"
They have mostly resigned themselves to the fact that here in the U.S. they have lost the battle in the secular arena. They know that if they begin to lose it in the religious arena, they are finally doomed. So they will fight, tooth and nail, against any "religious" organization that goes against their version of religious liberty. Just look at the Boy Scouts.
The rhetoric is going to get way worse before it gets better, but they will not care.
Isn't this like saying, SURPRISE, the KKK use a lot of white sheets?
Oh, but religious liberty to these people ONLY includes the right to discriminate against LGBT people. If a religious group chooses to accept LGBT people, that's an "attack on religious liberty", according to FRC and their ilk.
Yeah, I don't get it either...
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