In an interview on the Christian Broadcasting Network Tuesday, Florida Senator Marco Rubio warned that Christians in the United States are facing “a clear and present danger” because of the left’s efforts to turn mainstream Christian teachings into “hate speech.”
Rubio, who announced his 2016 presidential candidacy back in April, spoke to CBN Chief Political Correspondent David Brody about his Catholic faith and how it drives his public policy positions on social issues such as traditional marriage.
“If you think about it, we are at the water’s edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech,” Rubio told CBN News. “Because today we’ve reached the point in our society where if you do not support same-sex marriage you are labeled a homophobe and a hater.”
“So what’s the next step after that?” he asked.
“After they are done going after individuals, the next step is to argue that the teachings of mainstream Christianity, the catechism of the Catholic Church is hate speech and there’s a real and present danger,” he warned.
Although Rubio personally believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, he has said that he would attend a friend’s gay wedding if asked.
“How you treat a person that you care for and love is different from what your opinion is or what your faith teaches marriage should be,” he told Univision’s Jorge Ramos in a recent interview.
What Rubio objects to — and what many same sex marriage supporters object to — is the totalitarian left’s attempt to delegitimize and criminalize traditional Christian values.
Even the United States military is not immune to the left’s assault on Christianity.
In April of 2013, an Army instructor in Pennsylvania labeled evangelical Christians, Catholics, Orthodox Jews and Mormons as “religious extremists” alongside Hamas and al Qaeda during an Army Reserve Equal Employment Opportunity training brief on extremism. Later that month, an Army officer at Ft. Campbell, KY, sent an email to subordinates using similar descriptions to describe two mainstream Christian ministries, putting them in the same category as Neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, white nationalists and the Ku Klux Klan.
A U.S. Army officer sent an email to dozens of subordinates listing the American Family Association and Family Research Council as “domestic hate groups” because they oppose homosexuality — and warned officers to monitor soldiers who might be supporters of the groups.
“Just want to ensure everyone is somewhat educated on some of the groups out there that do not share our Army Values,” read an email from LTC Jack Rich to three dozen subordinates at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. “When we see behaviors that are inconsistent with Army Values, don’t just walk by – do the right thing and address the concern before it becomes a problem.”
Whenever and wherever liberals hold power, traditional Christian values come under assault.
Another example of this can be found in deep blue New York state where the term “choose life” was recently deemed “patently offensive” by the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that New York was within its rights to ban the phrase from license plates on the grounds that they are “patently offensive” and could provoke incidents of road rage.
Yet as Eugene Volokh noted in the Washington Post,  the DMV has allowed a “Union Yes” plate in their specialty license plate program.
It will be interesting to see how many other 2016 GOP contenders dip their feet into the swirling waters of the culture wars. With the Democrat media complex and organized left on one side ready to pounce the minute a candidate says something they can denounce as “hate speech,” the conversation is not for the faint of heart. But it is a conversation we need to have.