“Equality Act” Seeks Federal Persecution of Christians

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Democrats in Congress are pushing “equality” legislation that critics say would criminalize Christianity, Islam, and Judaism by forcing virtually every institution in society — including religious institutions — to hire, serve, and promote homosexuals and individuals confused about their gender. A number of analysts have warned that by enshrining “sexual orientation” in the statute, even pedophilia and pederasty could be protected. In the House of Representatives, Democrats already have more than enough co-sponsors to pass the bill. And in the Senate, they are getting very close. But a massive coalition of critics from across the political spectrum and a broad array of religious traditions is rising up to stop it before it is too late.

Among other changes, the so-called Equality Act, also known as H.R. 5 in the House and S. 788 in the Senate, purports to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.” To do that, it would enshrine actual or perceived “sexual orientation and gender identity” into federal statutes. That would give homosexuality, transgenderism, and other perversions of human sexuality and gender the same protections as race or sex in employment, housing, public accommodations, and more. Incredibly, the legislation specifically states that religious freedom may not be used as a defense under the bill. And it applies to churches, religious schools, religious hospitals, religious employers, gathering places, sports, all government entities, and more.

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Christian adoption agencies will be shut down, too, if they refuse to place children with homosexuals or individuals confused about whether they are men or women. Churches, synagogues, and mosques will no longer be able to uphold marriage between men and women, or any moral standards on sexuality at all. Counselors of faith will be banned from helping people with unwanted same-sex attractions or gender confusion. And Christians, Muslims, and Jews will no longer be allowed to seek out counselors to help them deal with those issues. Indeed, under the measure, everyone will have to affirm the LGBT agenda, or face persecution and destruction at the hands of the federal government. Churches will lose their tax-exempt status if they do not submit. Schools will lose their accreditation if they do not bow down to Caesar. And this is just the start.

The “gender” madness is breathtaking, too. Under the legislation, virtually everywhere across the United States, men who claim they “identify” as a women will be allowed to use women’s restrooms, showers, changing areas, and even bunk with women on trips, including church trips. This is already happening in government schools and some radical businesses such as Target, which continues to face a massive boycott for putting women at risk. But under this bill, the policy would even be forced on churches, domestic abuse shelters, Christian schools, and much more.

The bill would also force the participation of men who claim to identify as women in women’s sports, all but ensuring that no biological woman will ever win another sporting competition. And it would put young girls nationwide at risk, as any man in the country could simply walk into female facilities under this bill and claim to be a “transgender” who identifies as female. Numerous incidents have already occurred, and this would open up a Pandora’s Box of mischief, critics warned.

In the House, the legislation has been co-sponsored by almost 239 members — more than enough to pass the bill. In the Senate, meanwhile, S. 788 already has close to 50 sponsors. And over 100 of America’s richest and most powerful mega-corporations are lining up in support of the bill. Considering the growing outcry, it is highly unlikely that Trump would betray his base by signing the bill. However, that is not guaranteed, and despite the president’s crucial support from evangelicals, the administration has emerged as very “LGBT-friendly” across a range of issues, including promoting the legalization of sodomy and homosexuality around the world.

The non-profit Christian legal group Liberty Counsel called the “wrongly named” Equality Act the “most extreme threat to religious freedom, free speech, privacy, and to women’s rights that has ever been proposed by Congress.” The controversial measure, the group warned, “will be used as a wrecking ball to churches, religious organizations, religious freedom, and free speech.”

Writing for Focus on the Family, a highly influential Christian ministry, Jeff Johnston warned that the legislation was “dangerous” and “would have serious harmful consequences for people of faith and families.” Christians, he said, believe what the Bible’s Book of Genesis says clearly: God created two types of humans, male and female. Christians also believe what God taught about marriage, and that children ought to have a mother and a father. “We understand that Christian teaching about marriage has profound spiritual significance, as the husband and wife relationship reflects the relationship between Christ and His Church,” Johnston explained.

But under the Equality Act, the federal government “takes these basic biblical teachings and labels them ‘discriminatory’,” he continued. “It puts the full force and influence of the federal government behind enforcing this law and opposing Christian beliefs. The law is a powerful teacher, and the Equality Act would teach that Christian thinking about male-female differences, marriage, parenting, family and sexuality are rooted in prejudice — rather than in years of wisdom, reason and biblical exegesis.” The consequences of this have already proven disastrous at the state and local level. And if this bill gets passed, Christians across the nation would find themselves in the crosshairs of the U.S. government.

Another organization formed in response to the escalating LGBT onslaught against Christians and people of faith is the Gone 2 Far Movement. The interracial and interfaith body of clergy and laity committed to being true to biblical principles said it is “aghast” at the legislative agenda of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — and the LGBT “Equality” Act in particular. Dr. Randy Lancaster-Short, a black reverend who serves as the political chair for the movement, blasted the effort to equate sexual proclivities and gender confusion with the immutable characteristics such as race that were originally protected in the Civil Rights Act. Indeed, blasting the legislation as the “Pedophile Amnesty Act,” he and others have warned that the protections for “sexual orientation” may be extended even to “minor-attracted persons.”

In a statement to The New American, Dr. Short, who is working to make black churches aware of the legislation, noted that the Equality Act “will criminalize the Christian faith and deny religious belief as a justification for not complying with the Gay Equality Act.” By re-introducing the Equality Act, Short said, the Democrats “resumed the long march of the Homosexual Political Complex to undermine the sacred traditional values of the American Republic; destroy civil and religious liberties; collectively libel, exploit, defraud and defame protected minorities; poison and glut our legal system with oxymoronic suits; diminish our faith-based charitable and philanthropic institutions; imposed frivolous and wasteful regulations on businesses; create havoc in families and schools; and crystallize unscientific sexuality theories that invent sexes other than male and female.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has also come out against the move, saying it would impose “sweeping regulations to the detriment of society as a whole.” “The act’s definitions alone would remove women and girls from protected legal existence,” the Catholic leaders said, warning that the bill seeks to regulate thought, belief, and speech in an “unprecedented” departure from America’s founding principles. “Furthermore, the act also fails to recognize the difference between the person — who has dignity and is entitled to recognition of it — and the actions of a person, which have ethical and social ramifications. Conflating the two will introduce a plethora of further legal complications.”

The bill is so radical and extreme that even some Democrats such as Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and homosexual activists such as Gregory Angelo, former leader of the homosexual “Log Cabin Republicans,” are opposed to it. “Don’t be fooled by the name: The Equality Act is legislation that would compromise American civil rights and religious liberty as we know it,” wrote Angelo in a piece for the Washington Examiner. “All reasonable Americans, especially gay Americans who support pluralism and tolerance, should oppose it.”

In Europe, pastors and evangelists are already being arrested and jailed — literally — for pointing out that the God of the Bible condemns homosexuality as sinful, and that God made people as male and female. In Sweden, authorities investigated the Bible under Swedish “hate speech” laws and determined that the Bible violates that government’s speech codes, even though it is not “practical” to ban the Bible at this point. America may not be there yet, but the Equality Act would be a giant step in that direction.

In the end, the Equality Act is unconstitutional on its face. The federal government has no power to force anyone — much less everyone — to bow down to its radical anti-Christian ideology. And in fact, multiple provisions of the Constitution, including the First Amendment and the 10th Amendment, specifically prohibit the sort of lunacy envisioned in this legislation. Americans who value liberty and Christian civilization must recognize that everything they cherish is on the line. It is time to speak out, or be crushed by the oncoming freight train.

Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, regularly attends UN climate summits, including the COP21 in Paris. He can be reached at [email protected] or through Liberty Sentinel Media. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU or on Facebook.