The 3 - October 13, 2019

This week's edition of The 3, with three stories of relevance to the Christian community, highlights the Supreme Court's hearing this week on cases involving the expansion of civil rights law to include protections based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  Also, LGBTQ rights was the subject of a townhall sponsored by a cable news network, which included some statements which present concern to people of faith who are opposed to singling out LGBTQ individuals for certain rights.  And, a Florida city's ordinance against therapy for those who are struggling with same-sex attraction was struck down by a judge.

U.S. Supreme Court hears important case on expansion of civil rights law to gender identity and sexual orientation

The Alliance Defending Freedom calls the case that was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court last week an attempt by the ACLU to "rewrite federal law."  ADF is involved in one of three cases that have been combined before the high court, for which oral arguments were heard.  The summary of the case, according to the ADF website:

It all started when a male funeral director approached Tom in 2013 and explained that the funeral director would begin dressing and presenting as a woman while interacting with grieving families at work.

This funeral director had worked at Harris Funeral Homes for nearly six years and had agreed to follow the dress code since the time of hire. Tom took time to pray and consider the interests of the funeral director, his other employees, and the families that Harris Funeral Homes serves. Ultimately, Tom decided he could not agree to the funeral director’s plan.

The funeral director then filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which launched a lawsuit against Tom and Harris Funeral Homes for sex discrimination – claiming that “sex” includes “gender identity” in federal law.

Another Alliance Defending Freedom article states, "If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Harris Funeral Homes, the court would make it clear that unelected officials cannot redefine the law – only Congress has that power."  A loss at the high court "would have widespread consequences for everyone:"

ADF says, "It could undermine equal opportunities for women...," opening the doors for men claiming to be women "to take women’s athletic awards and scholarships." It would also put in jeopardy "the dignity and privacy of women — forcing organizations to open women’s shelters, locker rooms, and restrooms to men who believe themselves to be women..."  Plus, there are more implications outlined by ADF.

An analysis of the oral arguments from Kate Anderson, Senior Counsel at ADF on The Meeting House can be found here.

LGBTQ extremism on display at town hall for Democrat Presidential candidates

An article on The Federalist website gave a direct summary about the CNN town halls on Thursday night regarding positions on LGBTQ issues. It says:

Nine times last night the same basic half hour played itself out over and over again. As former Vice President Joe Biden pointed out early on, there weren’t many differences exposed, with the possible exception of former Congressman Beto O’Rourke promising to end tax breaks for churches, mosques, and synagogues. Instead, what we saw was a ritualistic exercise meant to make every candidate, and moderator, for that matter, accept incredibly progressive shibboleths regarding LGBT issues.

It called the evening's activities a "purity test" on these issues.  A Daily Caller article gave some examples.

Cory Booker:

“So for me, I cannot allow as a leader that people are going to use religion as a justification for discrimination,” Booker said. “I can respect your religious freedom, but also protect people from discrimination and as I said in an earlier answer.”

Elizabeth Warren decried what she called "hatefulness," saying, "The hatefulness frankly always really shocked me, especially for people of faith because I think the whole foundation is the worth of every single human being..."

About Pete Buttigieg, who is a gay man who is married to another man, who loves to lecture religious people from his faith perspective, the article said:

Buttigieg said Christians who use their religious beliefs against LGBTQ people make “God smaller.”

“It, to me, is an insult not only to us as LGBTQ people, but I think it’s an insult to faith to believe that it could be used to hurt people in that way,” Buttigieg said.

He his so-called same-sex marriage brought him closer to God and said he wished Vice President Mike Pence, a favorite rhetorical target of his, "could understand that."

Another Daily Caller article said:

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris entered the CNN LGBTQ forum by saying her pronouns are “She, her, and hers,” to which CNN’s Chris Cuomo quipped, “Mine, too.”

It was reported by The Federalist that Cuomo later apologized:

After his performance, moderator Chris Cuomo took to twitter to apologize for joking with Kamala Harris that his pronouns are also Her/She/Hers after Harris used that progressive salutation. After all, you can’t really have a religion, which progressivism has become, which out sin and confession. And this event was very much like a church service in which the sacraments were announced and piously taken as Gospel.

Other moderators were two gay men: Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon.

But, it was Beto O'Rourke who stirred the most ire among Christian leaders.  The article states...

...O’Rourke immediately responded “yes,” he would require religious institutions to lose their tax-exempt status for such an offense.

“There can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us,” he said.

A Christian Post article quoted Denny Burk of Boyce College, who, according to the article, "In a thread on Twitter Thursday...said O’Rourke’s proposal was a 'draconian assault on the First Amendment' and warned that it could 'bankrupt many churches.'"  The article goes on to say:

“Beto O'Rourke calls for Christian churches to lose their tax-exempt status unless they endorse gay marriage. This draconian assault on the First Amendment is now the MAINSTREAM view within the Democratic Party,” Burk began. “This could bankrupt many churches and religious institutions because it would dissuade contributions. Many churches would lose their property as a result of being unable to pay property taxes —especially in big cities. This is truly draconian and unconstitutional.”

And, then there was a disturbing stunt involving two children.  The Federalist describes the moment:

On two occasions 9-year-old children who transitioned from female to male appeared with their mothers to ask questions of candidates. Having a child who believes they are trans ask questions about how the state and society should deal with the issue of children transition ensures no substantive discussion can be had, because no sane and sensitive person would challenge such a child.

The article had also said, "There was no serious discussion about pending court cases regarding biological male athletes dominating girls and women’s sports. No real discussion of how to handle who really belongs in women’s shelters. No serious debate about how young is too young for a child to transition, either socially or medically."

Court victory regarding Florida city's ban on counseling people struggling with same-sex attraction

One of the emerging issues regarding the LGBTQ agenda has to do with therapy to help people overcome unwanted same-sex attraction.  While there are some who want to mischaracterize such therapy and use terms like, "gay conversion therapy," or "reparative therapy," in an attempt to discredit the practice of helping someone to change his or her orientation, groups like Liberty Counsel are fighting against laws to ban the practice.

Recently, in a challenge to Tampa's ordinance banning therapy that would provide help to those who are desiring freedom from these harmful attractions, according to Liberty Counsel's website:

...federal Judge William F. Jung issued an order granting summary judgment to Liberty Counsel in its suit to invalidate the Tampa ordinance that prohibited licensed counselors from providing voluntary talk therapy to minors seeking help to reduce or eliminate their unwanted same-sex attractions, behaviors, or identity. Today’s ruling permanently strikes down the ordinance, which also imposed significant monetary fines on counselors who provide this voluntary counseling. Liberty Counsel represents marriage and family therapist Robert Vazzo and his minor clients, as well as the Christian ministry, New Hearts Outreach Tampa Bay.

Notice the words, "voluntary talk therapy."  Nothing insidious here, that would give ammunition to critics of the practice.  Unless one doesn't believe a person can change through the power of Christ.  That is, after all, at the heart of the gospel.  The Bible teaches that a person should seek to overcome temptations and sinful behaviors, not to accommodate them.

The website quotes from the ruling, which states: "There is no grant of authority by the Florida Legislature to municipalities to substantively regulate healthcare treatment and discipline.” It goes on to say: “Nothing is more intimate, more private, and more sensitive, than a growing young man or woman talking to a mental health therapist about sex, gender, preferences, and conflicting feelings. The Ordinance inserts the City’s code enforcers into the middle of this sensitive, intense and private moment. But this moment is already governed by Florida’s very broad rights of privacy, something the Ordinance ignores…"

Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, is quoted as saying, "The city of Tampa has no authority to prohibit counselors from helping their clients achieve their goals. Regulating healthcare is above the pay grade of local municipalities. While striking down the ordinance, the court shredded the arguments used to justify these unconstitutional counseling bans. This ruling dooms every municipality in Florida and is the beginning of the end of more than 50 similar local laws around the country."