Why Beto O’Rourke’s Scary Proposition for Churches That Oppose Gay Marriage Proves America Is in Danger

CNN and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation hosted on Oct. 10, 2019, a town hall with nine Democratic presidential candidates presenting their views on LGBTQ issues, during which Beto O’Rourke was asked whether he thought that “religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?”

In his typical blunt way, the former El Paso congressman answered: “Yes, 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. And so as president, we’re going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.”

In terms of TV ratings as well as optics, CNN’s “historic” LGBTQ town hall turned into a historic fiasco. The ratings were far below those of the Fox News coverage of President Trump’s Minnesota rally. Most significantly, Fox News attracted more than double the number of viewers in the crucial 25-54 demographic than CNN.

On optics—with the idolization of socialism by current Democratic presidential candidates, out in the hinterland, where everyday Americans work 50-hour weeks, raise a family, coach Little League and teach Sunday school—the present Democratic field is no more than a disconnect.

This raises a red caution flag to centrist, mostly moderate Democratic leaders, who fear the far-left positions will make Democrat voters choose a third-party candidate or Trump in November 2020. A recent rumor has it that Michael Bloomberg is considering entering the race.

On Oct. 12, 2019, President Trump spoke at the Value Voters Summit in Washington, D.C.

“They,” he said, “are trying to use the courts to rewrite the laws, undermine democracy and force through an agenda they can’t pass at the ballot box. They just can’t seem to do it, can they?

“They are trying to hound you from the workplace, expel you from the public square and weaken the American family, and indoctrinate our children.”

“They” means those who at one time asked to be left alone in the privacy of their bedrooms to exercise their right to privacy. “They” are also the ones to bring suit against Christian florists, Christian photographers and Christian retreat centers who oppose immoral values, consistently defined in Scripture as sin. Their hawkish militancy is a rather peculiar way to demonstrate their dictum that all should be able to live their lives in the manner they want.

Their once-advocated libertarian position took a sharp left turn toward litigious totalitarianism during the Obama years.

If we, mercifully, hadn’t dodged a Rodham-Clinton presidency in 2016, Mrs. Clinton would have appointed by now two or three Supreme Court Justices and 150 or so left-leaning Court of Appeals judges (the feeder system to cases before the U.S. Supreme Court), which, in all likelihood, would have produced a point of no return for Christian America. The official government position would have become that “Christians are free to worship inside the church but must keep so-called biblical principles private. Outside the church structure, Christians will accept same-sex intercourse and marriage as normal or spend time in prison.”

Evangelicals showed up to vote in 2016, but by staying home on Election Day 2018, elevated Nancy Pelosi to speaker of the house in 2019. Whereas the Pilgrims, who came to America’s shores in 1620, established the Bible as the benchmark for fairness and justice, Nancy Pelosi, along with her hand-picked chairmen of House committees, hold an altogether dissimilar worldview. Watch the related video here.

Nonetheless, on Oct. 11, 2019, in South Bend, Indiana, a Gideon stood, by the name of U.S. Attorney General William Barr. In his remarks to the University of Notre Dame Law School he explained how secularists are assaulting religious freedom in America, as an effort to break down traditional moral values and impose their own orthodoxy.

He told faculty and students that “the problem is not that religion is being forced on others; the problem is that irreligion is being forced—secular values are being forced on people of faith.”

“Among the militant secularists,” he added, “are many so-called progressives. But where is the progress? We are told we are living in a post-Christian era, but what has replaced the Judeo-Christian moral system? What is it that can fill the spiritual void in the heart of the individual person? And what is the system of values that can sustain human social life?”

“This is not decay,” he concluded. “This is organized destruction. Secular forces and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry and academia, in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.”

With the secularists attacking on three fronts, seriously threatening sustainable freedom, the first front relates to the content of public school curriculum. “Many states are adopting curriculum that is incompatible with traditional religious principles according to which parents are attempting to raise their children,” says Attorney General William Barr. “They often do so without any opt out for religious families.”

America is in the middle of a cataclysmic clash between the mutually exclusive religions of Christianity and secularism, which is best viewed by examination of their disciples: biblically based Christians and militantly contentious homosexuals. Each group pushes its worldview, vying for ideological supremacy and control of the public square, the marketplace and the culture. Unfortunately for Christians, over the last 75 years, homosexuals came out of the closet and Christians moved in, “hiding their light under a bushel” or behind the four walls of the church building.

This brings us to Jesus’ ekklesia model of Matt. 16:18. By using the secular term ekklesia, Jesus aimed right at the center of the public square, and more specifically, at the cultural mountains of influence and the discipleship of nations, to which, He said, the “gates of Hades shall not prevail against.”

In reference to Jesus’ ekklesia of Matt. 16:18, Western civilization is about to expire, unless evangelical and pro-life Catholic Christians step into the public square. If an exodus from public schools—where radical indoctrination of America’s youth is dispensed on a daily basis by bureaucrats and administrators in rebellion against God—does not occur on a scale similar to that of the great Exodus from Egypt, congressmen and congresswomen are going to increasingly emulate Democrats such as Omar (Minn.), Pressley (Mass.), Tlaib (Mich.), Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), O’Rourke (Texas), Harris (Calif.), Booker (Mass.) and the rest.

“Conflict is our calling” constitutes a fundamental biblical principle that has to be reestablished in today’s Christendom. Otherwise, calamity and tribulation are going to be showcased nationwide in America. The nation will learn a lesson that can be learned in no other way.

Thankfully, Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand. {eoa}