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March
1, 2005
The
Truth about a Much-Needed
State Constitutional Amendment
". . . Who will stand up
for me against the workers of iniquity?"
Psalm 94:16 |
Dear Brethren,
The struggle over so-called gay rights is a struggle over the Word of God.
This Capital Times editorial below should be a real incentive to
Christians to make a public stand for the Word of God and God the Word.
WCU has just put in an order for another batch of our brochure What
the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality. We are also putting a
third-page flyer (see below) on homosexual "marriage" in each
brochure we lit drop. If you would like to do some lit dropping in your
area with the brochure and flyer insert, let me know how many of each you
need. We will stuff them and mail them to you at no charge. Another thing
you could do is mail the brochure and insert to rural routes in your area.
Let us know which town and how many addresses you want to receive the
mailing. We will use the WCU bulk mailing permit and provide the
literature if you will pay for the postage on the mailing. A Christian
brother from Greenwood just paid to do a mailing to 1,910 homes in his
area. How can Christians stay silent in the face of such Bible-bending
blasphemy as appears in the article below? It is not enough for Christian
radio personalities to talk to Christian listeners about the sodomite
assault upon God's Word; the Lord's people have a duty to defend the Bible
and its Author themselves.
Pastor Ralph Ovadal
Editorial: God, gays and the gospel of love
An editorial, February 28, 2005
http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/index.php?ntid=30225&ntpid=0
To hear the right-wing political zealots who hold sway in the legislative
chambers of Washington and many state capitols - including, we are sorry
to say, Madison - a confused populous might be led to believe that the
Christian Bible is packed with visceral hate speech about gays and
lesbians and anyone who might want to treat them as the children of God.
But, as pastors from around Wisconsin pointed out when they rallied to
oppose attempts to require discrimination against same-sex couples, those
who make the Bible into a weapon for the advancement of hatred and
inequality are deliberately rewriting the gospels to serve their own
narrow political agenda.
"We are tired of hearing fear, hate and intolerance preached in our
name," said the Rev. Jennifer Thomas, pastor of Lake Park Lutheran
Church in Milwaukee. She and other members of Christians for Equality
gathered at the Capitol last week to lobby against a proposed state
constitutional amendment that would bar not only same-sex marriages but
also state-sanctioned civil unions and other basic protections for gay and
lesbian families.
"We're Christians, too, and we stand opposed to this amendment. God
does not hate homosexuals," Thomas declared. "God does not hate
anyone."
The pastor has a point.
Right-wing legislators - who have used the crusade against gay rights to
deflect attention from their failure to address serious questions of tax
fairness, economic development, and education and health care funding -
like to claim that the Bible justifies what they see as an urgent
necessity to ensure that Wisconsin actively discriminates against gays and
lesbians. (In reality, the only urgency is a political one, as was made
obvious by their moves to delay a statewide vote on the amendment until
the 2006 gubernatorial election.)
The truth, as a growing number of pastors from a variety of denominations
are stepping up to point out, is not as the legislative hypocrites
suggest. Far from being a lexicon of hate, the Bible preaches love.
"You can take passages out of context to prove that slavery is
acceptable ... or to prove the subjugation of women," explains Curt
Anderson, senior pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ in
Madison. But, he adds, "If you read the Bible in the same sense that
Jesus did ... he said there are two commandments. One is to love your God
with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. The other is like unto
it: Love your neighbor as yourself."
Wisconsin is not a theocracy. Legislators ought not write amendments with
the goal of imposing certain religious beliefs on all the state's
citizens. But if legislators are going to go to the Bible for inspiration,
they must read the gospels in context. To do so is to recognize, as the
pastors who visited the Capitol last week have, that the gospels of love
and tolerance must never be allowed to serve as the tools of the petty
politicians who are the pharaohs of our time.
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The Truth about a Much-Needed
State Constitutional
Amendment |
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An amendment to Wisconsin's State Constitution has been proposed which would ban the creation by state statute of so-called same-sex marriage and its alternative in disguise, civil unions. The amendment is in response to a systematic, well-funded effort to force the citizens of every state of our nation to accept, by law, the notion that people who engage in homosexual acts should be allowed to
"marry" each other. Such a marriage would then be held by law as the equivalent of marriage between a man and a woman. Most Wisconsin citizens are opposed to such an upending of millenniums of settled law and vital custom. The amendment to the Wisconsin State Constitution just mentioned would take this issue out of the reach of well-funded extremists and activist judges.
A very concerted effort to defeat that amendment, which must ultimately be voted on by the people of Wisconsin, has been launched by homosexual activists and their supporters. That effort is part of the overall campaign to eventually legislate
"same-sex marriage" into Wisconsin law. Just as it is a lie to claim that the sexual union of people of the same sex should be legitimately considered a marriage, so the campaign to
"legalize" such an arrangement is based on deception and emotion.
For instance, homosexuals claim that they cannot inherit property from their
"partners" since their relationships are not deemed under law to be marriages. The reality, as everyone knows, is that citizens of Wisconsin can bequeath their property to anyone they want. Another lie being perpetuated is that homosexual people are barred from being involved in medical decisions involving their partners. There is absolutely no truth to that claim either. Under Wisconsin law, an adult can designate whomever he or she wants to have hospital visitation rights, to be involved in medical decisions, to be the first one notified of medical situations, and to have medical power of attorney in end-of-life decisions. Wisconsin citizens also have the right to appoint the person of their choice to have financial power of attorney and to be executor of their will. There is not one instance in any of those situations where the persons appointed are required to be related by blood or marriage to the one appointing them.
And so it is with the arguments put forth in defense of "same-sex
marriage" and civil unions. The entire effort is a dishonest one designed to appeal to emotion but having little to do with fact, true law, or morality. The homosexuals and their allies have even recruited liberal clergy who twist the Bible in an attempt to justify what the Bible condemns in no uncertain terms. Those who oppose the rewriting of Wisconsin law to designate homosexual relationships as
"marriage" are accused of promoting "hate" and "discrimination." Pilgrims Covenant Church encourages citizens to ignore such intimidation and make a decision on this issue based on truth, rather than deception and manipulation.
"And he [Jesus] answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put
asunder." —Matthew 19:4-6
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