I have a dream.
I have a dream that I will wake up one day in a country where we don’t have to go to court or pass a law to protect our fundamental natural rights—from the government.
I have a dream of a place where elected officials have so much regard for the Constitution that they memorize it like Scripture, in order to not sin against it.
I have a dream about a country where it doesn’t matter if you are on the right or the left, because you have so much respect for the freedoms you were given that you’d do nothing to put those liberties at risk.
If you told me that America in 2015 was such a place, I’d have to say, “April Fools” and go back to sleep.
Unfortunately, the joke is on us.
States have been forced to pass laws in order to protect the First Amendment right of Americans to practice their faith and believe as they choose—if they happen to own a certain type of business.
The fact that new laws are necessary to uphold a fundamental right is a travesty.
And it is a sign of how far we’ve fallen from the Founders’ vision of a nation where the government kept its hands off your business, your religion and your rights.
Regardless of the politics of this embarrassing charade playing out in Indiana and other states, the stakes couldn’t be higher. This battle isn’t about a gay person’s right to be served; this fight is about whether a gay rights activist can use the government and the courts to coerce someone into doing something that violates their faith.
That takes this out of the bedroom and puts this debate squarely into the realm of the Constitution. After all, does a woman who wants an abortion have the right to demand that a “pro-life” gynecologist perform it? No. That would violate that doctor’s faith. Does the woman lose the legal right to obtain an abortion if one doctor refuses to perform it? No. She simply has to find an abortionist.
It’s not rocket science. It’s about respecting the diverse range of religious belief that makes up America.
And to think the left is always harping about “diversity”—but that’s only as long as you agree with them.
Is there a limit to what an individual can force a business to do? Can a Jewish Kosher deli be forced to sell me a BLT if I take it to court? Can a Muslim be forced to violate his faith in order to please the demands of a Christian customer who wants a ham sandwich and a beer?
Does a Christian business owner have “equal rights” under the law? Or is it time to acknowledge that the big push for “equality” by gay rights activists has never been about equality?
After all, equality means that you have no more “rights” than anyone else. There are no “straight rights” groups. There are no “straight, Christian rights” groups. And there are certainly no “straight, Christian, white male” groups. If any formed, they’d be laughed out of existence, and rightly so.
Most Americans are sick and tired of having their beliefs and their values assaulted on a daily basis in the name of a false equality. While I abhor any crime committed against a person because simply because they are gay—that is evil and the perpetrator should be punished to the full extent of the law—that does not condone “gay rights” groups pressuring the government to harm an innocent business owner simply because of the tenets of his or her faith.
The gay rights movement, in concert with hardcore leftists in power today, has pushed for “anti-discrimination” laws in every state and university and public institution that essentially make it illegal for Christians to hold true to their faith without having to go to court.
In California, a Christian organization or any faith-based organization can no longer be recognized on campus if it requires candidates to profess a belief in the tenets of that faith as a requirement for leadership.
The left trades on noble-sounding causes, but really has one agenda: revenge. That victim mentality is a particularly dangerous pathology, and it is virulently anti-American in its ideology.
The idea that Americans would have to choose between violating their faith or losing their businesses is an insult to those who risked everything to found a country where religious liberty was first and foremost protected from the government.
If the Government and the Supreme Court uphold the right to coerce an individual against their will to do something that is against their faith, then we will have legalized tyranny in the land founded on freedom.
Today, it’s cake and flower shops. Tomorrow, the government will be in the door of your church—just as the mayor tried last year in Houston—to dictate what you believe and what you can say or hear from the pulpit.
Don’t believe it could happen here? It already has and will continue until enough people take a stand. We must stand with the business owner and throw off the chains of militant propaganda being force-fed by our government, through our media, and in our schools, and say:
“I don’t care what you do in your bedroom or who you choose to love, but when you come into my church and my business and try to coerce me to do something against my beliefs, that’s where I draw the line! Just as I have no right to tell you what you can and cannot do in the privacy of your bedroom, you have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do in my business. So, if you cannot respect my beliefs, get out and stay out!”
And then we need to remember that we must defend that right for every American, regardless of race, religion or creed, because this is about defending one of the most important freedoms this country was founded to protect—religious liberty.
