If you haven’t read the Governor’s Executive Order from the State of New York regarding the prohibition of state funded or state sponsored travel to North Carolina yet, you should do yourself a favor and read it. You might even gather the family together to read it as an exercise in careful judgment on the importance of words and looking for the agenda pushing this.
This is about a lot of things; but one thing is sure, it is not a civil rights issue.
Just this week the governor of Georgia caved to the financial pressure and vetoed a similar law that North Carolina has. Corporate America put the financial threat of pulling out if Georgia passed a law to protect pastors from being forced to do the will of the growing opinion of the nation.
HERE is the entire executive order Governor Cuomo of New York issued March 28th, 2016.
Preface: I’m in favor of protecting the civil rights and liberties of all citizens of the land, all of us. The state of New York, the city of New York City specifically, has been influencing the nation (and the world for that matter) for a long time. This executive order was not a statement protecting the civil rights of anyone. It was a statement from one governor to all governors to not do what North Carolina is doing.
What has been happening slowly and methodically around the nation has suddenly shifted, abruptly.
The use of public bathrooms will cost private citizens millions (it be more like billions in bathroom renovations and legal cost) of dollars in the coming years. I get that people want to be viewed as normal, but that desire to be viewed as normal is a perversion of the natural order of God’s creation.
This executive order is not the voice of reason. It is more the voice of hate than the tone of North Carolina’s law to give protection of religious freedom. It positions itself as “the voice of reason” for the world to follow suit.
This is not a civil rights issue.
This executive order is a ban on publicly funded travel to North Carolina is in effect immediately and will continue until North Carolina changes or repeals it’s current law. It’s the kind of behavior that forced the hand of Georgia’s governor to veto their law to give clergy a way to not violate their conscience.
Idaho, watch this closely. Bills are introduced every year to change our laws to look more like New York’s and less like ours. Keep your eye on this and begin formulating your words to compassionately respond while you stand your ground.
Church, your duty is to be a pillar and buttress of truth. That doesn’t give us permission to be ugly and foolish in our defense. Our way, our path, our duty is to God. It’s not about forbidding someone from sinning, it’s about obeying God.
I don’t know of anyone who wants to keep other people from using the bathroom while they are away from the privacy of their own home. There is a fair and just concern about who’s using that public bathroom.
Public safety is the duty of the civil government. It is not the duty of civil government to validate your feelings. Governor Cuomo, your executive order was a breach of duty.
As a pastor, I’m bound to Scripture, period. I can’t and won’t stand in the way of anyone who wants to sin; I’ll warn them along the way to not do what they so desperately want to do that is in violation of and against the law of God, but at the end of the discussion I’m bound by duty to perform religious services that are defined by the Holy Bible.
The bible is clear on these matters. This church and this pastor will carefully navigate through the shifting. It will require a firm foundation to survive all before us. Does the bible address gender issues? Yes. Does the bible address marriage issues? Yes.
When the Bible speaks as clearly as it does, we obey regardless of public opinion.
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