why use such a strong word when judges make up law and choose to favor one group over another rather than allow democratic processes to work?
Keith Pavlischek at First Things quotes Nathan Diament who calls this struggle over competing legal rights between gay rights and people of faith “the mega-cultural issue of the decade.”
Pavlischek points to this Washington Post article recognizing the tension as well as the fact that people of faith are losing.
Faith organizations and individuals who view homosexuality as sinful and refuse to provide services to gay people are losing a growing number of legal battles that they say are costing them their religious freedom.
….
— A Christian photographer was forced by the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission to pay $6,637 in attorney’s costs after she refused to photograph a gay couple’s commitment ceremony.— A psychologist in Georgia was fired after she declined for religious reasons to counsel a lesbian about her relationship.
— Christian fertility doctors in California who refused to artificially inseminate a lesbian patient were barred by the state Supreme Court from invoking their religious beliefs in refusing treatment.
— A Christian student group was not recognized at a University of California law school because it denies membership to anyone practicing sex outside of traditional marriage.
Tyranny doesn’t seem like too strong a word for this sort of thing. Now what is the proper christian response? To fight like crazy? to become another aggrieved interest group marching on Washington and/or various state capitols?
Or is it to recognize that Jesus sent us out as sheep amongst wolves and to therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves? Is it perhaps to love our neighbors as ourselves? What does such love look like in the face of the tyranny described above? how do we continue to be marked by love instead of judgment while remaining true to God’s word regarding sin?
these are very difficult questions to answer. I am afraid that very soon we will all have to find answers to them.