LGBT Rights vs. Religious Freedom

Here is John Stonestreet writing at Breakpoint:

According to one Christian thinker, it’s time to get on the LGBT bus or be thrown under it.

Last week a thought occurred to me. I wanted to tweet it out but wondered whether it would be too incendiary. The thought was this: “It seems odd how confident we are that folks can lose their unwanted sexual parts, but can’t lose their unwanted sexual attractions.”

And then I thought of the stunning article by Christian ethicist David Gushee. And if you follow me on Twitter, you know what I did next. I hit “Tweet.”

In his article at Religion News Service, Gushee fired a warning shot across the bow of conservative evangelicals and religious traditionalists. He writes, “[y]ou are either for full and unequivocal social and legal equality for LGBT people, or you are against it. . . neutrality is not an option. Neither is polite half-acceptance . . . Hide as you might, the issue will come and find you.”

Now, there have been honest attempts by people on both sides of these issues to offer third-way sensible solutions, even compromises, that accommodate religious freedom and LGBT rights. Still, I think Gushee is right when he said these solutions will largely be rejected, shouted down by demands of a full embrace of the LGBT agenda.

What bothered me, however, deeply about Gushee’s piece, was how he framed the struggle of those who hold strongly to the historic Christian vision of sex and marriage. Conservative religious holdouts, Gushee writes, “are organizing legal defense efforts under the guise of religious liberty, and interpreting their plight as religious persecution.”

Jake Meador, writing at Mere Orthodoxy, was bothered too, using much stronger words than I am today. We’ve seen time and again, and Jake lists them, how federal, state, and local governments are forcing people to choose between their livelihoods and their faith. Meador goes on to point out what is really going on here—a clash of worldviews. And one side, at least, sees it as a total war.

Read more: Breakpoint

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