I am going to avoid discussing what I believe theologically for a moment. If you wonder what I believe theologically, you can go to http://ag.org/top/Beliefs/Statement_of_Fundamental_Truths/sft_short.cfm. Additionally, I believe homosexuality is a sin. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe it is a life choice. I have thought about it, and I would go to jail before I performed a same-sex ‘marriage’ in the name of God. I think whatever they have needs to be defined in purely civic terms. In all fairness, I think adults in a free society should be able to define their relationships to their own specifications. Just don’t expect me to call it a marriage and certainly don’t expect me to try to stamp the name of God on it. However, I don’t make a big deal out of what I believe about gay relationships. My commission was not, “go into all the world and make heterosexuals out of all.” My commission is to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe only the absence of Jesus sends people to hell. So, the main thrust of my preaching is Christ.
However, I want to discuss a related civic matter in general terms using elements common to Christians, Jews, atheists, Muslims, and others. Let’s contemplate free speech. It is the cornerstone freedom. Societies are only as free as they are free from the thought-police.
It seems some folks want to label, or libel, social conservative evangelical Christians for committing some type of hate crime when we say homosexuality is a sin or, as almost all societies throughout recorded history, that marriage is an institution between a man and woman ordained by God.
Morality is Defined within each Group
How each group defines sexual morality, at least between consenting adults, is completely a matter of freedom of thought. It is an exercise of our rights to say homosexuality is a sin. It is an exercise of the same right when GLADD says it is not a sin. I shouldn’t be allowed to prevent them from saying it isn’t a sin. They shouldn’t be allowed to prevent me from saying it is a sin. Allowing one group to define morality for the other group makes as much sense as giving editorial control of the democratic national convention to the replications. Our moral compass is intricately entwined with our personal inner self.
A Free-hand to the thought-police will get us all, eventually
The group that I am most amazed at trying to use thought policing tactics is secular homosexuals. Their party line is that homosexuality is genetic and not a matter of choice. As secularist, they also believe in evolution via natural selection. The main dynamic, according to evolution doctrine, of species morphing is the ability of members holding one trait to replicate more than the other group. Homosexuality, if you are indeed born that way, with natural selection guarantees a dwindling minority. Thought-police are the sword that best fit in the hand of the majority. The secular homosexual’s own axioms should trigger a very healthy fear of the thought-police.
I am also amazed at my own group when we try to silence our opponents with the same tactics. We are in the minority too. Especially my flavor of Christianity. I am a Pentecostal. That means I speak in tongues, I believe in divine healing, and I believe the Spirit leads me. I am in a very small minority. I certainly do not want the thought-police pressuring me. I have a vested interest in the right of GLADD to make public statements although I strongly disagree with what they are saying. GLADD has a vested interest in my right to preach homosexuality is a sin although they disagree with it. The rabbi down the street has a vested interest in my right to preach that Jesus was the virgin born Messiah and I have a vested interest in his right to preach he is not.
Everyone wins with freedom of speech and everybody loses when it is restricted.
I guess I need to add the obvious: violence, denying fair housing, equal employment, equitable health care (including hospital visitation and insurance) is NOT speech. We have every right to preach that homosexuality is a sin. We do not have the right to discriminate. We also do not have any right to target an individual and bully them.
— Donnie Bryson
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