A homosexual confrontation at the pulpit is coming
Don HinklePathway Editor
June 8, 2004
If you didn’t get the message when homosexuals vandalized the property of Gravois Mills Baptist Church in November and followed-up with profane-laced, threatening phone calls to church staffers, be patient.
You will – especially if you are a pastor committed to preaching the full counsel of God’s Word.
I am troubled by the inaction of Southern Baptists and other conservative evangelicals following such a menacing threat to a congregation’s freedom to worship. Phones in Washington should have been ringing off the wall. Even more outrageous was the FBI’s refusal to hunt down the perpetrators. If Southern Baptists continue to wallow in our passivity while such injustices go unchallenged, we can expect more.
With the marriage amendment to the Missouri Constitution set for voters to ratify on Aug. 3 (and its ratification will largely hinge on turnout), little attention has been devoted to the forthcoming debate and vote over the Federal Marriage Amendment. The amendment, like the one earmarked for the Missouri Constitution, defines marriage as being only between a man and a woman. The amendment is awaiting action in the U.S. Senate where it must garner 67 votes before it can be put on ballots for states to ratify.
Passage in the Senate does not look promising at the moment and unless Christians rise up with a mighty voice and encourage a larger number of senators to support the amendment, America will soon legalize homosexual “marriage” – a move that will redefine the meaning of “family” and ultimately lead to its destruction.
Once the homosexual lobby and their liberal supporters secure the “right” to wed, expect some type of bogus “civil rights” law, probably under the banner of “federal hate crimes” to emerge that will attempt to silence pastors from preaching that homosexuality is a sin.
Such legislation became a reality in Canada April 29 ( Sweden had already passed a similar measure). The new law adds sexual orientation as a protected category in Canada ’s genocide and hate-crimes legislation, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Opponents have expressed fear that the law will deem the Bible as “hate literature” under the criminal code. Preachers like Jerry Falwell, whose ministry is televised in Canada , must either have references to homosexuality edited out of his sermons or face not having them aired at all. Earlier this year a Saskatchewan man was fined by a government agency for taking out a newspaper ad with Scripture references condemning homosexuality.
It looks as if this sort of totalitarian injustice has already jumped Canada’s border to her south.
Homosexual activists have complained to local government officials in Helena , Montana , about the activity of yet another Southern Baptist Convention church. Homosexual activists filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Political Practices May 26 against Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church . They accuse the church of inappropriately holding an event to support a state constitutional ban on homosexual marriage. (It is interesting to note the homosexual activists were joined by the local Planned Parenthood operation in filing their complaint. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider.)
Just what exactly did the pastor and congregation of Canyon Ferry Road do that was so awful?
The church hosted a satellite telecast featuring evangelical leaders defending traditional marriage. Among the speakers were Chuck Colson, the well-known Southern Baptist layman and head of Prison Fellowship, and James Dobson, founder and president of Focus on the Family. Petitions supporting the constitutional ban against homosexual marriage were circulated, and signed.
Homosexual activists groused to state regulators that the church paid a registration fee to access the telecast and therefore was required by law to file appropriate paperwork with the state. Then of course a spokesman for the activists utilized the news media to make an increasingly used threat to churches: Face fines and perhaps a loss of one’s non-profit status with the Internal Revenue Service.
“I don’t know what they’re talking about,” a stunned B.G. Stumberg III, pastor of the 200-member church told the Billings Gazette. “We haven’t given a cent. The only thing we’ve done is we’ve spoken out for marriage.”
Two days after homosexuals filed their complaint a report surfaced that Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah (a Mormon), and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are planning to introduce a new version of the Kennedy-Smith federal “hate crimes” law. Christians had better see this for what it really is: pandering to the homosexual lobby. If passed, it will criminalize beliefs and thoughts, rather than actions, and set the stage for the persecution of the Christian church in America .
Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, pointed out in a column published by WorldNetDaily.com May 29, that during the Supreme Court hearings in 2000 on the Boy Scout case, pro-life Rev. Rob Shenk was sitting in the audience next to the White House liaison for homosexual issues. Thinking the pastor was a fellow liberal, the woman whispered, “We’re not going to win this case, but that’s OK. Once we get ‘hate crime’ laws on the books, we’re going to go after the Scouts and all the other bigots.”
If the homosexuals and their liberal supporters are not stopped now, Southern Baptist pastors who preach the full counsel of Scripture may well find themselves as the next “