NOTE: This was written prior to the US Supreme Court decision on "same-sex marriage".
Jack Minor Published: 06/20/2015 at 6:58 PM
The days of Christianity where it doesn't make waves, doesn't cause controversy, doesn't draw opposition, and isn't a target are finished, attendees at the Future Conference at Skyline Church in La Mesa, California, were told this week.
"The days of comfortable Christianity are over," Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage warned.
The theme of the conference was "What you thought was coming is here now," and confronted head on several hot button topics that WND has reported on, including the possible legalization of same-sex "marriage" and Muslim immigrants coming to America.
The meeting consisted of a lineup of speakers including Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; WND columnist Star Parker; Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford; Tony Perkins; Frank Gaffney Jr., former assistant secretary of defense for International Security Policy; Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel; Ted Baehr, a WND columnist and editor of Movieguide; and many others.
In a matter of days, the Supreme Court will be issuing a controversial ruling on whether to overturn millennia of human history and declare homosexual "marriage" to be a right. Tensions are running high on both sides as many expect the court to side with the radical homosexual agenda, thus forcing Christians to choose whether to hold to biblical morality and engage in civil disobedience or face the possibility of losing their tax-exempt status and right to disagree with the "gay" agenda.
WND has complied the "Big List" of situations where Americans already have been fined, punished and persecuted by the government over their adherence to the biblical idea of marriage being between one man and one woman.
"Brown said while the issue is serious, it is important to keep things in perspective.
"The court may decide to redefine marriage. If they do, what happens in the U.S. will have a profound effect globally. If they do, the fight is not over. We'll be in the same situation as the pro-life movement was after Roe v. Wade.
"No court can change the fundamental reality of father and mother; the court's not going to change that, but they will put the lie into the law," he said.
He asked, if the issue of same-sex marriage is simply over love and equality, why is there such an effort to punish and marginalize those who stand for traditional marriage?
"It was the idea of Christianity that helped bring the idea of equality to the pagan world. But even they understood that marriage was between a man and a woman; what they didn't understand was the bold proclamation of Christianity of the essential equality of all human beings before God. Unfortunately, the movement to redefine marriage has taken that idea and removed it from truth and justice."
Brown related how the U.S. government already is pushing the issue globally with such fervor that it is refusing humanitarian aid for countries that fail to adopt the homosexual agenda.
"Our own government is going to Africa and other countries and saying, 'Unless you accept this new definition of marriage and human sexuality, we aren't going to help you anymore.' Don't tell me there is no harm by redefining marriage," he said.
Brown said he talked to a Nigerian bishop who said this is a matter of life and death because they rely on the West for clean water.
"People die if we are not able to provide clean water to them, and we are actually being told to abandon our faith or lose our help."
The left has attempted to silence Christians by moving moral issues into the political realm and then claim that holding to biblical values violates "separation of church and state," despite those words never appearing in the Constitution. Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said that not only are the critics wrong, but the Constitution actually guarantees the rights of Christians to bring their values into public office.
"Article 6 of the Constitution says there is no religious test for any office of the United States. Any person that serves in the United States can have any faith or have no faith. So certainly people of faith shouldn't be precluded by our government nor by our own faith tradition."
He also challenged ministers and preachers, saying they have a special obligation to engage and educate their people on political issues from a biblical viewpoint.
"It's important for pastors and leaders to engage on these issues because people in the pews and in our churches want to talk about things from a biblical worldview. They want to know the context, what does the scripture say about this," he said.
"They can't know until someone gets the chance to walk through some of that. You're the expert on these things. You're the one who studies scripture all the time. You're the one who's extremely aware of what's happening in culture and also the truth of scripture.
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