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California Demands That Christians 'Evolve'
Townhall.com ^ | May 11, 2018 | Brent Bozell and Tim Graham

Posted on 05/11/2018 1:45:01 PM PDT by Kaslin

California has a hallowed but questionable reputation as being the birthplace of the radical Free Speech Movement on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Today, they're not just shutting down conservative speakers on the campus. The state's Democrats may pass a law to shut down religious speech and create a statewide LGBT "safe space."

There's a new legislative proposal banning all conversion therapy as a fraudulent business practice -- by not just mental health providers but anyone. Since the "independent fact-checkers" are quick to swarm around conservative "misinformation," FactCheck.org, PolitiFact and Snopes have all cried "False" at the idea that this bill is a threat to the sale of the Bible.

They declared that a threat against Bible sales is nowhere in the text of California Assembly Bill 2943, offered by gay assembly member Evan Low. That is correct ... on its face. It doesn't mention the Bible.

However, the bill would amend the state Consumer Legal Remedies Act, adding the ability to sue for damages for "advertising, offering to engage in, or engaging in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual." Any efforts to change someone's sexual orientation "in a transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer are unlawful." That's more than therapy. It's any kind of an argument.

Conservative and Christian lawyers see this proposal as dangerously broad. In National Review, David French called it a "dramatic infringement on First Amendment rights." He was alarmed at the language that defines newly unlawful "sexual orientation change efforts" as including "efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex."

We know whose expression this bill is designed to curtail. Leftist legislators were not subtle. One assembly member spouted that it is time for legislation to nudge the "faith community" to "evolve with the times."

In rating the claim of a threat against Bible sales "Mostly False," PolitiFact dismissively said: "If the law had any impact at all, it would be on those occasions when a Bible is sold in conjunction with a program to change someone's sexual orientation ... with millions of Bibles sold in California, the weight of evidence suggests the bill might only touch a fraction of them."

So if a "fraction" of conservative Christians get sued for selling the Bible or similar books, will the "fact-checkers" apologize ... after the bill gets signed and becomes law?

It's risky for "fact-checkers" to make bold claims of True or False when people make predictions during policy debates. Their crystal ball evaluations seem largely designed to "correct" (read: intimidate) conservatives from making predictions about the future. What happens when predictions come true?

This one-sided "fact-checking" goes back to 1992, when liberal journalists suggested then-President George H.W. Bush was lying when he predicted that Bill Clinton would raise taxes. Clinton was elected, and the next year he signed the largest tax hike in American history.

"Fact-checkers" also threw flags when conservatives charged that insurance premiums were "skyrocketing" under Obamacare. PolitiFact decided that the 2013 "Lie of the Year" was then-President Obama's proclamation that "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it" under Obamacare. But in 2009 and 2012, it rated the statement "Half True." Oops.

Now imagine that instead of California allowing gay activists to sue for damages over any echo of conversion therapy, it allows consumers who lost their insurance plan under Obamacare to sue it for fraudulent fact-checking. It's unlikely the fact-checkers would rush to defend it. They would see it as ... "a dramatic infringement on First Amendment rights."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: california; christians; factcheckers; mediabias
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To: Kaslin
We are here:“If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live? (Old Tappan NJ: Fleming H Revell Company, 1976), p. 224. So just when are we to stop "evolving?" Only the State knows that one.
21 posted on 05/11/2018 2:24:31 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: liberalism is suicide

One good hit from the San Andreas fault, and we’ll have our own Atlantis and fewer loons.


22 posted on 05/11/2018 2:26:50 PM PDT by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: Kaslin

Islam first.


23 posted on 05/11/2018 2:27:50 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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To: mjp

I don’t know. The God of the NT seems a lot less murderous than Yahew.


24 posted on 05/11/2018 2:28:27 PM PDT by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Yes he did


25 posted on 05/11/2018 2:29:06 PM PDT by Kaslin (Politicians are not born; they are excreted -Civilibus nati sunt; sunt excernitur. (Cicero))
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To: sparklite2

Sorry. That should read Yahweh.


26 posted on 05/11/2018 2:29:14 PM PDT by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: Kaslin

funny how it’s against the law to try to change gay people to straight people but it’s perfectly legal for gay people to change straight kids to gay

How about we have a law banning gay people from mentioning to straight kids that the gay lifestyle is alright? How about we prevent them from even talking to our kids because our kids get offended when they do?


27 posted on 05/11/2018 2:42:01 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: Kaslin

...California Demands That Christians ‘Evolve’...

Into what? Muslims? Atheist Democrats? Transsexuals?


28 posted on 05/11/2018 2:44:52 PM PDT by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winning)
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To: SaveFerris

California is so communist, it’s amazing they are so open about it. This won’t hold up in court but will anyone have the money to sue them?


29 posted on 05/11/2018 3:02:42 PM PDT by SaraJohnson ( Whites must sue for racism. It's pay day.)
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To: Kaslin

Sorry California, God’s laws never evolve. He is the same yesterday, today & forever. Be careful Cali, keep it up San Andreas will rip apart. No doubt the Spirit of AntiChrist is already here. This nation will one day in the future, will not be safe for Christians nor Jews.


30 posted on 05/11/2018 3:04:17 PM PDT by Patriot Babe
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To: Kaslin

Once upon a time: California was known for free speech, now it is known “ONLY HATE SPEECH”.


31 posted on 05/11/2018 3:08:11 PM PDT by Retvet (Retvete)
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To: I want the USA back

throwing gays off high buildings


Understand: if they keep it out of the media then it really never happened, did it?


32 posted on 05/11/2018 3:08:18 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finishid.)
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To: Patriot Babe

.
>> “Sorry California, God’s laws never evolve. He is the same yesterday, today & forever.” <<

That is absolutely true, but most of  “Evangelical Christianity” insists that those laws ceased to matter after the Crucifixion.

There is nothing in the word to support that nonsense, and massive testimony to the contrary by the Apostles, yet they shout it constantly.
.


33 posted on 05/11/2018 3:10:25 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: sparklite2

However spelled He is my God. Unchangeable despite highs and lows of the human race.


34 posted on 05/11/2018 3:11:03 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finishid.)
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To: Kaslin; All
The main reason that California officials are getting away butting heads with citizens who enjoy exercising their constitutionally enumerated freedoms of religious expression and speech is this imo.

The corrupt, post-17th Amendment ratification Congress left over from the lawless Obama Administration has a track record of refusing to exercise its 14th Amendment power to make punitive laws to discourage state actors from abridging constitutionally enumerated protections.



The clear remedy for this situation is the following.

Patriots in all states need to rescue California citizens from their misguided, activist state leaders by doing this. Patriots now need to be making sure that there are plenty of Trump-supporting patriot candidates on the 2018 primary ballots who will commit to making punitive laws to deal with state actors who abridge constitutionally enumerated protections.

Patriots then need to pink-slip career lawmakers by sending patriot candidate lawmakers to DC on election day so that they can start making laws to protect constitutionally enumerated rights from state actors.

And until the states wise up and repeal the ill-conceived 17th Amendment, as evidenced by concerns about the integrity of the outcome of Alabama's and Pennsylvania's special elections, patriot candidates need to win elections by a large enough margin to compensate for possible deep state ballot box fraud, associated MSM scare tactics, and interference from people like Soros.

Hacking Democracy - The Hack

35 posted on 05/11/2018 3:46:26 PM PDT by Amendment10
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To: Kaslin

Sodom and Gomorrah, Hurry get out before the earthquake comes.


36 posted on 05/11/2018 4:10:02 PM PDT by ivory49
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To: Kaslin

Why don’t they ask Muslims and/or atheists to evolve.


37 posted on 05/11/2018 5:05:58 PM PDT by HollyB
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To: Kaslin

Christians have been evolving for centuries.

Most folks call it the Reformation

Some baptists have evolved from rivers all the way to galanized cattle water troughs.


38 posted on 05/11/2018 5:15:45 PM PDT by Thibodeaux (Long Live the Republic!)
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To: sparklite2

That same God told the people to mourn while he carried the cross because Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed and many would die. That sure sounds nice, doesn’t it? That same NT God talked curses to a fig tree, and it withered and died right before the eyes of his disciples. People are selective, but he really doesn’t sound all that different.


39 posted on 05/11/2018 6:05:35 PM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: Kaslin

I just don’t understand how a tiny minority of people, who engage in an activity that goes against moral, natural and even Darwinian law can dictate to the Christian majority what they will think, believe, encourage and celebrate. How did we get here?


40 posted on 05/11/2018 6:07:12 PM PDT by tuffydoodle (A moral wrong cannot be a Civil Right.)
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