When Rights Collide

(Written March 30, 2015)

for The Bold Pursuit

Indiana recently enacted legislation designed to remedy a defect in anti-discrimination laws.  That defect has infringed on religious liberties.  Some of the best known examples have occurred when bakers and photographers were asked to perform services in support of same-sex wedding ceremonies, such as baking wedding cakes or taking photographs.  Many people have religious objections to the mainstreaming of homosexuality, and refuse to support it, even indirectly.  They have been sued by proponents of same-sex marriages, in an effort to either force them to participate, or else to lose their businesses.

The problem faced by the gay rights advocates is that the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion.  Such exercise is not limited to church property.  Living the Christian life is a full time activity, seven days per week.  It requires sacrifice.  In some countries, when it is demanded that Christians renounce Jesus or be put to death, they choose death.

That is the direction in which the modern form of social liberalism is taking America.

Many pundits are pointing out grey areas in the conflict of Christian rights versus gay rights.  America is seeking to resolve the conflict politically and legally.  It is, however, neither a political problem nor a legal one.  The conflict is moral and spiritual.

Matthew 6:24 (King James Version)

²⁴ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

America must choose between license and liberty.  Pray that it chooses wisely.

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