JAMES DOBSON: CHRISTIANS SOON TO BE 'HATED MINORITY'
New warning of fallout from Supreme Court
Subscribe to feed- image: http://www.wnd.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-print/images/print.png
- Text smaller
- Text bigger
image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2014/01/james_dobson.jpg
James Dobson hosted a panel of Christian leaders on his “Family Talk” radio show Wednesday and warned that Christians are about to face a new status in America as a “hated minority” if the U.S. Supreme Court decides, as many expect, to mandate same-sex “marriage.”
“The heart of what’s happening is an attempt to impose a new morality on all of America,” said Maggie Gallagher, a traditional-marriage advocate for 25 years.
The author of “The Case for Marriage,” Gallagher is co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage and a senior fellow with the American Principles Project.
Homosexual advocates have no interest in a “live and let live tolerance,” she said. “After redefining marriage, the next thing on their agenda is to redefine Christianity.”
Under the new regimen, there will be no difference between man and woman, husband and wife, she said.
The attitude is that if you “see something different, there’s something morally wrong with you.”
Christianity, she said, “will enter a new phase, as a hated minority group.”
She and several others joined Dobson to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court case in which justices, including Elena Kagan and Ruth Ginsburg, who already publicly have endorsed same-sex marriage, will hear arguments April 28.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled states have a right to define marriage.
Also visiting with Dobson, who recently clashed with the Obama administration over its abortion mandates, were Jim Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego, and Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage.
Dobson noted that marriage has been defined as the union of a man and a woman since God created the institution thousands of years ago, predating any government.
And he detailed how in 31 state elections, 31 times voters adopted the traditional definition.
The courts, however, Dobson said, “have steadily been ruling that traditional marriage is unconstitutional and discriminatory and those decisions have found their way now into the Supreme Court.”
“Almost all the court watchers are predicting the highest court in the land is about to redefine marriage.”
If that happens, he said, it “will change everything in the culture,” including churches, schools, businesses, the military and family.
“Who knows where it will end?”
Brown said the judiciary doesn’t have a right to rule on the issue.
“All of us can see there’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution that says anything about the redefinition of marriage,” he said.
But, he said, “We’re at a point in history where ideology trumps all, the notion that judges should be bound at all by what the Constitution or what precedent says.”
He noted that in 1971, the Supreme Court dismissed a case regarding redefining marriage, saying there was no federal question there.
He said Christians are going to have to stand up for their beliefs.
Garlow continued, “If I were the evil one, I would set out to destroy marriage.”
And he warned that the attacks by homosexuals now on businesses will expand.
“What we’re seeing happen to businesses today will happen to churches tomorrow,” he said. “[They may] lose their buildings, or keep their buildings and agree they’re going to perform same-sex marriages.”
He cited existing cases stemming from attacks on Christians who run the Ocean Grove camp in New Jersey, a wedding chapel in Idaho and Houston pastors who opposed a transgender-rights ordinance.
WND has compiled a “Big List of Christian Coercion” with dozens of cases in which Christians have been fined, threatened or penalized for recognizing the biblical definition of marriage.
“It’s evidence of what’s’ going to come to the church,” he said.
Dobson added that ministries “better decide now what you will do when forced into that corner.”
Dobson is a familiar critic of government. He recently described President Obama as the “abortion president” and warned America is heading toward “depravity.”
In his October 2014 newsletter, he wrote about the Old Testament account of Abraham’s nephew Lot, “who chose to take his family into the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
“The men living there had become desperately depraved, burning with lust for each other. Jehovah told Abraham that their sin was so grievous that the Lord decided to rain utter destruction upon them. Abraham pleaded with the Lord on behalf of the people, but the patriarch could not find even ten righteous men in either of the cities to justify mercy,” he wrote.
“Why have I chosen to recount this biblical story from so long ago? Because I am convinced that America and other Western nations are sliding in the same direction,” he warned. “We have not yet reached the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah, but that appears to be where we are headed.”
Dobson added: “Judge Robert Bork, the brilliant jurist who was shamefully denied a seat on the Supreme Court, wrote a book about this danger 18 years ago. It was titled ‘Slouching Towards Gomorrah.’ I think he had it right.
“Many influential men and women of the judiciary are leading us toward perdition,” he said.
His concerns were shared by the Rev. Billy Graham in a Sept. 30 column for Decision magazine.
Only Graham didn’t hold quite as positive an opinion about America as Dobson. While Dobson said America is on a moral slide, Graham said it’s already hit bottom.
“Even though America is just as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah ever were, and as deserving of the judgment of God, God would spare us if we were earnestly praying, with hearts that been cleansed and washed by the blood of Christ,” he wrote.
Dobson pinned part of the blame for a crumbling America on federal judges – especially those who of late have found ways to undermine traditional marriage.
“Modernists, libertarians and atheists today recognize no condemnation of sexual perversion in the Bible. However, this historical account illustrates how God views it. The outrageous behavior of the wicked men of Sodom and Gomorrah sealed their doom. Fire and brimstone fell from the sky on both cities and utterly destroyed them,” Dobson explained.
“The story of Abraham and Lot also illustrates how entire societies can become so corrupted by evil that divine judgment eventually destroys them, or they simply fade away. It happened to the people of Greece, Rome, Pompeii and other cities and cultures where wickedness became the order of the day. One thing is certain. God is the holy Sovereign Lord of all heaven and earth, and He will not be mocked.”
WND reported previously Dobson described Obama as “the anti-religious freedom president.”
In his newsletter at the time, Dobson said, regarding Obama’s abortion mandates, “Among other things, [Obama] was targeting religious freedom and set about accomplishing that from the beginning. That was the activity to which I objected strenuously during my comments in Washington. I offer no apologies for expressing those views now. The effort to force Christians to violate their consciences must be opposed with all vigor, regardless of the consequences – primarily because it is unconstitutional. Christians are being chastised, dismissed, harangued and sued for daring to practice their deeply held convictions in the public square. Family Talk is among those who have been pressed against a wall.”
WND also reported that when Dobson spoke to the National Day of Prayer, hundreds stood and cheered his condemnation of the government’s ongoing attempts through Obamacare to require Christians to participate in something that profoundly violates their faith – abortion.
Dobson, through his Family Talk, had fought the Obamacare requirement that employers must pay for abortion-causing agents for their employees. The U.S. Supreme has struck down that requirement now.
Dobson at that time bluntly backed up his opinion.
“[Obama] has made it so that every American will have to pay toward the support of abortion,” he said, citing hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds that already go to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“How can anyone challenge my characterization of Mr. Obama as ‘the abortion president? … He even voted three times in the Illinois state senate not to protect babies who were born alive after surviving botched abortions,” he said.
Regarding the current fight over the definition of marriage, WND has reported several state judges already are suing for being told they must perform same-sex marriage services.
WND has done a series of reports on friend-of-the-court briefs submitted in advance of the ruling. One argues changes could have far-reaching effects.
“If the traditional definition of marriage is not a rational basis for legislative action, it is hard to imagine what is. Put another way, if rational-basis review invalidates traditional marriage, it seems likely that few other laws would be safe from the federal courts.”
Such a determination “would enable federal courts, through mere disagreement with the wisdom or utility of state policy, to overturn scores of state laws that afford government benefits or impose government costs on some (but not all) citizens. That result would undermine federalism, liberty, and our nation’s democratic processes.”
WND reported longtime conservative leader Pat Buchanan urged Christians to fight the “LGBT fanatics” who are demanding they betray their faith, even if it means civil disobedience.
In an interview with WND, Buchanan, the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” and other bestsellers, spoke on the controversy over the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Buchanan forcefully condemned defeatism among social conservatives and rejected retreat or even compromise. Instead, the one-time presidential contender and Reagan White House aide urged Christians to put the laws of God above the laws of man.
“This battle can be won, but it cannot be won if we do not stand our ground and fight against this moral onslaught from the left,” he said. “The hill to stand on and fight on is the God-given natural right and the constitutional principle that people of faith may choose not to associate with those whose actions are abhorrent and whose lifestyle is insulting and offensive to that faith.”
Buchanan dismissed arguments that “gay”-rights activists are simply asking for political freedom or the same rights as any other citizen.
“The LGBT militants are not asking to be left alone,” he said. “They are demanding that we accept the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriages and manifest that acceptance, under pain of law and sanctions, in our daily lives.”
Buchanan added: “As the Romans demanded of the Christians, the LGBT fanatics want us to burn incense to their gods. The answer is no. If it comes to civil disobedience, so be it.”
WND also reported a team of prominent Christian leaders worked on a statement to inform the public – including Supreme Court justices – that they will engage in civil disobedience rather than follow a ruling that establishes homosexual marriage in the United States.
Among those leading the charge are Dobson, Rick Scarborough of Vision America Action, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and James Robison of Life Today.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/04/christians-facing-new-status-as-hated-minority/#PwhIfc1QTxRdAytg.99
