First published on “Minds Renewers” by Pastor Jon Gleason of the Free Baptist Church of Glenrothes, Scotland on 9 July 2014. Click to view original article.

 

“Legal action against Christian bakers is ‘a crushing blow to religious liberty,’” says the headline on Christian Today’s website. They are wrong — it is a crushing blow to all liberty. If the action is successful, freedom of speech in Britain is dead.

Most, on reading the headline, would think, “Oh, this is another case of a Christian baker refusing to do a cake for a ‘homosexual wedding.’” Those cases are bad enough, but this is (remarkably) even more chilling.

The owners of Ashers Baking Company in Belfast, the McArthur family, refused to provide a cake which said, “Support Gay Marriage.” Gay marriage is not legal in Northern Ireland — this is a political campaign.

It is a major threat to free speech when someone is prohibited from saying what they wish on a political issue. But incredibly, the Equality Commission thinks that even silence is not permitted, that people can be compelled to provide services to a political campaign to which they object.

Imagine a Scottish baker being compelled, against his wishes, to provide a cake saying, “Stay in the Union!” One would think the SNP might have something to say about that.

Suppose a baker with Conservative leanings refused an order for a cake saying, “Down with the Tories!” Or, as Colin Hart of the Christian Institute suggested, suppose a feminist baker refused to provide a cake saying, “Sharia for UK,” or a baker with environmentalist views was asked to produce a “Support Fracking” cake. Should the law be used to force them to comply?

Not only is it unacceptable to speak against the homosexual agenda, it is now unacceptable to fail to take part in promoting it. The weight of the law will be used against those who don’t support the agenda. The powers that be have decided that the furtherance of that agenda is now more important than freedom of thought, of speech, and of religion. It is even more important than the freedom to remain silent.

This is a major step forward in the agenda. We’ve already been told that “homosexual rights” to have approval is more important than freedom of religion. Now we know it is more important than freedom of speech or even freedom of silence.

Will this nation really accept this? Do we really believe that it is appropriate to force someone to provide services for a political campaign with which they disagree? Will no one reign in the Equality Commission? Someone in authority needs to say, “Stop! Wait! Think!” Are the political leaders so blind that they don’t see what this does to freedom, or is it just that they are so craven that they allow this to go on anyway? Or is it just that the target is Christians, and no one cares about protecting their freedom of speech?

Christians will be ok. We serve a higher Power. Our citizenship is in Heaven, and if the legal authorities here take away our citizenship rights, they store up eternal rewards for us.

But Britain is going to pay a high price for this kind of thing. When you decide any members of society have lost the right to freedom of thought and of speech, when you decide which side they must take on a political question, you lay the groundwork for dictatorship and oppression.

They may come for the Christians now, but they’ll be coming for someone else next. When you deal mortal blows to freedom for some, you diminish it for everyone.

When you do it to Christians who are harming no one, merely for following the clear teachings of the Bible, you remove any expectation of God’s blessing, and put yourself in jeopardy of His wrath. Unfortunately, those in power and those pushing the homosexual agenda probably don’t care much about that — but just because some are blind to a danger doesn’t mean it is non-existent.

For Christians, the message is the same as I’ve mentioned before. Evil is not satisfied to co-exist with good. Don’t expect to be able to just get along. You can’t give evil a place in your heart, and excuse some sin or other, because evil doesn’t accept good as its neighbour. Similarly, you can’t have peaceful co-existence with the homosexual validation agenda. The goal is validation, and there is no validation if you don’t join in the chorus of approval. Silence isn’t approval, so if they have the power to compel, they won’t settle for silence.

I guess it is time to post the following progression again (I’ve posted it before). Amazingly, if this court case pushed by the Equality Commission succeeds, we’ve made it all the way to the bottom. It will now be illegal for bakers (and presumably printers) to fail to endorse a political campaign for gay marriage. That is tyranny.

That which was
illegal because of its immoral nature
becomes something which is legal but morally condemned.

That which was
morally condemned
becomes something which is acceptable, albeit less than ideal.

That which was
less than ideal
becomes something which is equal in value, if still a little morally questionable.

That which was
questionable morally
becomes something which is accepted as morally good.

That which was accepted as
morally good
becomes something which it is immoral to oppose.

That which was
immoral to oppose
becomes something which it is immoral to fail to endorse.

That which was
immoral to fail to endorse
becomes something government must endorse.

That which was
what government must endorse
becomes something which the state church will be compelled to endorse.

That which was
what the state church much endorse
becomes something which all must endorse.

That which was
what all must endorse
becomes something which it is illegal to fail to endorse.

And so that which was illegal, because of its immoral nature,
has become something which it is illegal to fail to endorse.

Tyranny.

For evil will eventually be unsatisfied to merely coexist with good.

What is true of a society is true in the human heart.
If we let evil become acceptable to us,
it will want to rule us.
Evil accepts coexistence with good only for as long as it takes it to gain dominion.

 

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