Mark
Imagine a criminal trial where a lawyer threatened a witness with prosecution, bankruptcy, and humiliation if that witness did not say something about a defendant that the witness knew to be false.
I would hope that if that actually happened for real today, the lawyer would be facing serious consequences including imprisonment himself or at least disbarment.
Well, it is happening today. Often. And no one cares.
The witness is the Christian Church. The lawyer is the LGBT lobby. The defendant is God himself. The lie the church is being forced to tell is that God is okay with homosexuality.
I am not 100% sure the world gets the idea that whatever we want or make up about the supernatural is somehow miraculously done by some hyper-benevolent deity somewhere up there. My guess is that it is from the occult and witchcraft etc, where people tend to believe that deities (or maybe demons) are there to cater for their every whim such as unfairly fudging circumstances in their favour or causing people they don’t like to drop dead!
The impression that gives is that we can control God. We can change His mind. If we think a certain way, He automatically thinks that way. If we want something, He automatically approves.
This is a pretty risky assumption. What if it’s wrong? Wouldn’t it be important to know if it is? Wouldn’t it be important to warn others? To have the freedom to do so?
The old analogy goes, if people are swimming in a river and don’t know there is a lethal waterfall downstream, but I know and I fail to yell a warning and as a result of that some adorable playful kids are tragically killed, then maybe I should understand if the grieving parents feel I have an element of liability there.
It’s kinda weird. If God doesn’t exist, fine. Do what thou wilt. If God exists, maybe we need to presume He is a wee bit more powerful than we are, and we should be concerned about what He thinks. If He is under our control somehow, then He doesn’t really exist. He is a figment of our imagination. Created in our image. Whatever that may look like.
Maybe the consequences of getting to heaven and finding out, too late, that God is not amused are a little higher and longer-term than what a demon lawyer can threaten you with on this earth. Maybe that was one of a few good reasons why freedom of speech was there for good reason(s).
If the church is not free to say what they believe about God, and what they believe turns out to be correct, where does that leave people’s, morality, spirituality, psychology, eternity?
I’m not expecting the LGTB rights lawyers to face consequences anytime soon.