Thursday, December 19, 2013

Don't Criticize Me For Being Who I Am

Predominantly, the posts I have seen are in support of Phil Robertson and free speech, but FoxNews included the following Tweet in an article they wrote on the subject:

Thank god A&E did the right thing, what Phil did was not a issue of freedom of speech but an immoral act, its 2013, stop being ignorant. - @LucVsZhVO of Chicago

This is the type of mentality we are dealing with when we deal with the world. To this person, an immoral act trumps freedom of speech, so it is seen as perfectly okay for A&E to silence Phil Robertson. The problem with this thinking is that what @LucVsZhVO defines as an immoral act and what Phil Robertson defines as an immoral act are two very different things. That is why freedom of speech is so important. Without it, those who have the most power will define what acceptable speech is and define everything else as immorality. True supporters of freedom of speech realize that freedom of speech means that other people have the right to say things they don’t agree with or even consider to be immoral.

While I haven’t spoken to the executives at A&E, I suspect that they have a similar mentality to the one shown in the tweet by @LucVsZhVO. If you were to ask them if they support the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, they would likely agree wholeheartedly. But they have placed their support of the homosexual lifestyle at an even greater importance. This is likely because they don’t see homosexuality as a lifestyle choice but something akin to a person’s race. Frequently, we hear homosexuals refer to their sexuality as “who I am.” It is on that basis that people argue against what the Bible says. How can it be wrong to support people for being who they are?

Let’s think about this for a moment. The Bible tells us that we are all born with a sin nature. That is who we are. So even if scientists discover evidence that homosexuals are born that way (no such evidence has been found so far), that would only be more evidence that people are born with a sin nature. Now, none of us think a murderer is a born killer. But some people will become murderers. The nature they are born with leads them in that direction. That doesn’t mean they have to become murderers, but they will, if left unchecked. And the same applies to homosexuality. They didn’t have to become homosexuals, but their unchecked sin nature led them in that direction.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. - I Corinthians 6:9-11

I love this passage because it makes it so clear. Yes, that may have been “who we are,” but if we repented and accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, “who we are” is something very different. We are washed. We are sanctified. We are justified. That’s who we are!

And being the people that we are now, we’re not going to have the same attitude that @LucVsZhVO has. We are going to see sin for what it is and we are going to warn the people who are involved in sin of the wrath to come. You see, a Christian will feel as strongly that they need to warn people of the consequences of sin as a heathen like @LucVsZhVO feels that what the Bible says about homosexuality is immoral.

I think we will encounter more of these people than we have in the past. For a while, many people would pretend to be Christians and they would never say something like @LucVsZhVO did. But political correctness has shifted and people have become emboldened to express non-Christian views. It is easy to become discouraged because there are religious organizations that have begun to support these unbiblical views. Don’t think that Christians are shifting their views; realize that many of these people were never saved in the first place and others are simply weak and in need of more training. But Christians will stand with Jesus and the Bible. That’s who we are.