ENDA a Threat to Religious Liberty

Carrie Gordon Earll

Stuart Shepard and Carrie Gordon Earll, Senior Director of Issue Analysis at Focus Action, talk about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), an Orwellian-named pro-homosexual bill that will pave the way to discriminate against Christians and anyone who tells the truth about the immoral and unhealthy practice of homosexual behavior.

The bill would add two new categories of protected classes: sexual orientation and gender identity.  If you are a man who “feels like a woman,” you get to wear a dress and makeup to work whether your employer wants his business to be identified with such nonsense or not.

This is bad enough for any employer to have to put up with this assault on their freedom of association and their freedom to present their business to the public however they’d like, but it is even worse for a Christian business person or a Christian business that may want to maintain a reputation of moral uprightness and a family-friendly environment.

This kind of harassment of Christians is not merely theoretical, either.  It is already happening. These are just some of the examples where Christians and Christian businesses have been harassed by homosexuals under the guise of “equality”:

• Last year a Catholic priest in Canada, Fr. Alphonse de Valk, who was investigated by the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) for the “crime” of teaching what the Bible says about homosexual behavior (that it is a sin) and marriage (that it is between a man and a woman).
• The Ontario Human Rights Commission slapped Protestant printer Scott Brockie with a $5000 fine for refusing to print homosexual-themed stationary.
• The Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal fined Hugh Owens several thousand dollars for quoting the Bible in a letter to the local newspaper.
• Mayor Diane Haskett in London, Ontario, was fined $10,000  for refusing to proclaim a gay pride day.
• Swedish Pastor Ake Green in 2004 was sentenced to 30 days in jail for preaching a sermon in which he defined homosexual behavior as sinful and harmful to society.
• A British couple were questioned by police on possible “hate crime” charges after they wrote a letter-to-the-editor of their local newspaper criticizing city officials for distributing brochures at city hall promoting homosexual behavior.
• In Canada, Focus on the Family must cut out any portions of their broadcasts dealing with homosexuality for radio stations in that country.
• Last year the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal ruled that youth pastor Stephen Boissoin was guilty of writing a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate which might expose homosexuals to hate and contempt (Boissoin’s 2002 letter said homosexuality was immoral, physically dangerous and should not be promoted in schools).
• Not content with their success in quashing open refusals to bow at the altar of political correctness, the Canadian pro-homosexual group EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) is calling for the Canadian postal system to censor the mail for “hate mail”
• Catholic Charities in Boston was forced out of the adoption ministry because they refused to put children in homes of homosexual couples.
• Boston school teachers have been threatened with termination if they fail to cast homosexuality in a positive light to students.
• The University of Toledo fired a black administrator for writing a “letter to the editor” of a local newspaper about the inconsistency of comparing homosexuality to ethnicity.
• Christians in Philadelphia were arrested for reading Bible verses and praying out loud during a homosexual festival.
• The state of New Mexico issued a fine of $6,600 to a Christian photographer (a private businessman) who didn’t want to photograph two lesbians make a commitment to each other.
• A Colorado law passed last year to allow men to use women’s restrooms and shower rooms if they “felt like a woman” also contained provisions which prohibits the publication for public consumption any material which is “discriminatory” against homosexual behavior.  So while churches can (for now) continue teaching within their own walls what the Bible says about homosexual behavior, they cannot publish anything in public which does.  This includes any Christian book publishers or other ministries in Colorado.

This Administration and this Congress are in the midst of a full-scale assault on everything that is good, everything that is decent, on the United States Constitution, on the Christian faith, on everything about the American way of life as we have known it for most of the last 200+ years.

And the people must hold these usurpers accountable, right now and at the next opportunity at the ballot box.

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