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Posted on 07/13/2015 11:48:46 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
The legalization of same-sex marriage has been met with near-comical resistance on the right. The GOP presidential candidates in particular are struggling to face this new – but always inevitable – reality. Most of them have embraced a shopworn trope about a shadow war on Christianity in this country. By their lights, being Christian has become a borderline crime in today’s America.
According to Mike Huckabee, we’re “criminalizing Christianity in this country by telling people who hold to an orthodox worldview of biblical marriage that if you still believe that … you will be guilty of discrimination, which could result in some kind of civil or criminal action against you.” Got that, Christians? You keep making noises about the Bible and the big government boogeymen will lock you up!
The reliably feverish Bobby Jindal expressed similar outrage on NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I think the left is now going to go after our First Amendment rights …We have to stand up and fight for religious liberty. That’s where this fight is going. The left wants to silence us, Hillary Clinton wants to silence us, and we’re not going away.”
Bobby Jindal has a talent for incoherence, so it’s not worth unpacking this, but let’s be clear: No one is being “silenced” here. On the contrary, rights to which everyone is entitled are now available to everyone – that’s precisely the opposite of oppression.
Ted Cruz, who appears designed for hyperbole, told an Iowa crowd that “the last 24 hours at the United States Supreme Court were among the darkest hours of our nation.” That’s right, folks. Allowing gay people to marry is among the darkest moments in our nation’s history, a history that includes genocide, slavery, segregation, the Great Depression, internment camps, 9/11, and atomic bombs. That’s how grave this situation is. Cruz, culture warrior that he is, knows a war on Christian values when he sees it – and he wants his devotees to know he’s on the front lines.
Of course Mike Huckabee was not to be outdone. He let the fine people of Iowa and New Hampshire know that this is a moral crusade. Invoking Martin Luther King Jr., Huckabee said: “An unjust law is no law at all…I don’t think a lot of pastors and Christian schools are going to have a choice.” And why won’t they have a choice? Well, because the very essence of Christianity is being challenged here – Christians have no choice but to revolt, Huckabee argues.
All of these arguments (if we can call them that) play well with the Republican base, but they’re either completely false or deliriously overstated. There isn’t a war on Christianity – there never has been. Implicit in the “war on Christianity” argument is this assumption that to be a Christian is to be anti-gay marriage. That simply isn’t true. Indeed, the Episcopal Church just approved religious weddings for gay couples. The Presbyterian Church has taken similar measures. Are members of these churches no longer “real” Christians? Are they part of the war on Christianity, too?
Opponents of same-sex marriage love to cite the Bible in defense of their views, but one can do the same for slavery, which finds justification in both the Old and New Testaments. Truth is, virtually every Christian affirms parts of the Bible and ignores others. I don’t know a single Christian with any interest in stoning adulterers, but the Bible makes clear that this is an appropriate (and necessary) punishment. There are countless other examples, of course, but the point is clear enough: The Bible is brimming with unethical mandates, and it’s a good thing we don’t take them all literally.
The Bible is a text. Like all texts, it’s open to interpretation. Which parts of the Bible people choose to live by tells you much more about them than the text itself. The decision to legalize gay marriage isn’t an affront to Christianity; it’s a rejection of particular beliefs held by particular Christians. These people aren’t bigots because they’re Christians; they’re bigots who also happen to be Christians.
If the success of the LGBT movement is a war on anything, it’s a war on bad ideas. Anyone who believes that marriage, as an institution, has remained static over time doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Originally, marriage was a kind of economic transaction, a means of transferring property and preserving wealth. Only recently (historically speaking) has marriage had anything to do with love, compassion or parenting.
Marriage is an evolving social construct. If the institution is valuable (it is), if it serves society (it does), why shouldn’t we extend it to include more people? We should and I’m glad we have, as are many of my Christian friends. The only people who feel their “religious liberty” is under assault are those who use their religion as a cover for their bigotries.
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Ted Cruz Ping! 
My my, queers lie from Salon, how surprising. Sarcasm.
Of course not, liberals are happy to let Christians live in peach and are just happy we contribute to the diversity of our great melting pot. /s
Obamacare contraception/abortion mandate was a direct attack upon Christians.
Please find listed below all of Salon’s pro-Christianity columns:
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The blather is not worth a response.
Pretty funny, that Obie from Nairobi’s constituency are convicted felons.
... that means it's about three years away.
Well, if it had said, “ No war with Christianity,” I’d have to agree. Christians are not fighting back. It’s not a war. When you slaughter sheep, you don’t call it a war with sheep.
More evidence that homosexuality is hazardous to sanity.
Who to believe? Salon who says there is no war on Christianity or the LGBT and militant atheist groups who not only say there is a war and they are winning.
It’s not a “war” so much...
This has ALWAYS been about criminalizing Christianity,
in order to use the State to persecute Christians.
To answer those questions: No, they are not real Christians. They are apostates who practice a different religion entirely. (SSM is only one of their many departures from the faith.) "Are they part of the war on Christianity, too?" Excuse my language, but they are the house-n*ggers for the anti-Christian culture.
“a shopworn trope about a shadow war on Christianity”
Tell that to the Christians in Oregon who refused to bake a homosexual cake.
How many times has Salon gone broke? When will it stick?
1. Bakers are having everything they own ripped from them.
2. Bible publishers are already being sued.
3. Churches are already being sued.
Other than that everything is just fine.
This whole act of the war on Christianity by the libbies/progressives/pinkos/fascists/socialists/commies reminds me of Daniel chapter 3:
Daniel 3 King James Version (in part)
1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
2 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
3 Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
4 Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:
6 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
7 Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
8 Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.
9 They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever.
10 Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image:
11 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
12 There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king.
14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
The only people who believe that are those who do not believe in marriage.
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