Recently, a LGBTQ Equality town hall was held by CNN for Democratic presidential candidates. Several views expressed by candidates at the town hall spell trouble for religious liberty and Christianity in America, particularly those of Beto O’Rourke.
O’Rourke promised that as president, that he would take away the tax exempt status of religious institutions, including churches and schools, who do not support same-sex unions. He justified his policies by claiming that institutions who do not support same-sex unions violate the human and civil rights of others.
It is incredible how far the push for LGBTQ rights has shifted over the last several years. First, it was said that same-sex marriage would not affect Christians because what people did in private shouldn’t matter. Today, progressive politicians and LGBTQ rights organizations are pushing for total acceptance and support for this unbiblical institution and practice.
The LGBTQ movement does not just want the right to wave the rainbow flag—it wants to force anyone who disagrees with them to wave it as well. This is seen in a litany of recent court cases, from the attempt to shut down Colorado baker Jack Philips to the imposition of fines on the Klein’s bakery in Oregon.
While many conservative Christians rallied to support these courageous individuals, who were intimidated by the state for their beliefs, others remained passively silent. They believed that since they were not in the wedding industry, they might be spared from this progressive bullying.
It now appears that the time to remain neutral on this issue is (or will soon be) over. While O’Rourke or any of his other progressive comrades may not be elected in 2020, it is only a matter of time before someone comes to power who will be all too eager to use the coercive power of the state to crack down on allegedly-bigoted Christian institutions.
This begs the question: are we ready for this? Specifically, will Covenant be willing to lose its tax exempt status, other forms of federal funding, and accept the threat of a potential lawsuit if necessary?
Unfortunately, I do not think that we are. We might be willing to sustain one lawsuit, but I believe that eventually we would compromise our beliefs.
In my three years at Covenant I have heard many discussions on environmentalism, immigration, and pluralism. I applaud Covenant for wrestling with these difficult and complex issues. However, I believe that, for the most part, the prevailing culture will not have a problem with the positions generally supported at Covenant.
On the other hand, in Christ and Culture, a class about Christian engagement in culture, there are no lectures on being pro-life in a pro-death culture, which shrugs as nearly a million unborn children lose their lives every year. There are no lectures on the importance of God’s design for marriage in the midst of a culture that daily denigrates marriage. There are no lectures about the spread of transgender ideology, which hurts children and ignores God’s creation of male and female.
These are all issues over which the prevailing culture will hate our convictions. While there are some individual classes which address some of these issues, they receive little attention in the core which every Covenant student is required to take. I believe that this is a mistake because these scarcely covered issues are precisely those which our generation of Christians is most tempted to compromise on.
We must work to cultivate a culture at Covenant which is unafraid at a broader level to not only engage with the culture, but also to oppose it if need be.
If we as an institution are not bold in declaring unpopular biblical truths, how can we be sure that we will not compromise when the government comes knocking on our door telling us to render unto Caesar what is God’s?