A Moment With Pastor Fred

“We believe God created male and female genders and established marriage as a life-long covenant relationship between one man and one woman. Further we believe God ordained marriage as the only proper context for sexual expression.” HBC Doctrinal Statement.

That paragraph is seen as discriminatory by the House of Representatives. They passed the Equality Act Thursday, now it goes to the Senate. The president has vowed to sign it if it passes  The Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 changing the definition of “sex.” The Act states that instead of referring to biological men and women that word covers sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill explicitly states the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 will not protect against such discrimination. In other words, the Equality Act favors LGBT rights over religious freedom.

Christian ethics professor Andrew Walker wrote, “The bill represents the most invasive threat to religious liberty ever proposed in America. Monica Burke from the Heritage Foundation writes, “These policies are not being used to promote equality. Instead, they are being used as a blunt-force weapon to ban disagreement on marriage and sexuality by punishing dissenters.” Christian ethics professor Russell Moore writes, “Every human being ought to be treated with dignity but placing sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes in this kind of legislation would have harmful consequences.”  Pray this bill will not pass the Senate. God is sovereign. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you where you go,” Jos 1:9.