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If people are confused by the ‘Red Ripple’ that underwhelmed the midterm elections, they need only to look at the state of Republicans in Congress.
The party that once stood for traditional, Christian values cannot claim to do so anymore.
These are politicians who are not speaking out against the moral decay plaguing America, but embracing it and pushing it forward into law.
The ironically named Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), which will codify gay marriage and opens the door to national recognition of forced child marriages, polygamy and any other redefined form of ‘marriage,’ passed a procedural vote with enough votes from Republican senators joining the Democrats to avoid a filibuster.
The Republican senators were: Roy Blunt (MO), Richard Burr (NC), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Susan Collins (ME), Todd Young (IN), Joni Ernst (IA), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rob Portman (OH), Mitt Romney (UT), Dan Sullivan (AK) and Thom Tillis (NC).
An agreement was made on Monday with a group of bi-partisan senators to put additional religious protections within the bill. Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Susan Collins (R-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) claim the “legislation fully respects and protects Americans’ religious liberties and diverse beliefs, while leaving intact the core mission of the legislation to protect marriage equality,” and that the added amendment “protects all religious liberty and conscience protections available under the Constitution or Federal law.”
Just prior to the passing of this procedural vote, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expressed support for the newer version of the bill with the added religious liberty protections.
“We believe this approach is the way forward,” the Mormon church said in a statement. “As we work together to preserve the principles and practices of religious freedom together with the rights of LGBTQ individuals, much can be accomplished to heal relationships and foster greater understanding.”
The RMA also repeals the Defense of Marriage Act signed into law under the Clinton administration in 1996, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. It also allowed individual states to not recognize same-sex marriages.
With attorneys general like Merrick Garland, anyone who is philosophically, religiously or morally opposed to marriages other than traditional marriage, can expect investigations and the lawsuits that will soon follow.
Yet those who have actually read the bill, like senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom Greg Baylor, say that “the original version of the bill created serious threats to religious liberty. The changes to the bill did virtually nothing to address those threats. The amendments to the bill that purport to protect religious liberty are mere window dressing,” Baylor told the Daily Wire.
Baylor believes the bill “gives the IRS one more building block in its case to take away the taxes and status of nonprofits that hold traditional views on marriage.” He added that the bill “creates a threat to religious social service agencies that work with the government,” and could “affect how religious freedom cases are analyzed more broadly.”
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) disagreed with his colleague Mitt Romney who supported the bill, and released a statement bemoaning the lack of religious protection within the bill.
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) November 16, 2022
Groups such as Liberty Counsel have been fighting this redefining of marriage for decades. But with Republican politicians surrendering the fight, joining Democrats in passing legislation that destroys the nuclear family, abandoning God’s intent for marriage and approving of unnatural relationships that the Bible says are abhorrent to God, there is little chance of blocking this bill from passing. {eoa}
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James Lasher is Staff Writer for Charisma Media.
