We are told that LGBT is a state of being; that is, that those who go by the designation of “homosexual” or “transgender” (terms of recent invention) are what they are, the same as race or sex. A person’s sexual orientation, we are told, is fixed and irreversible, as immutable as the Almighty Himself. As far as they are concerned people such as former lesbian, Rosaria Butterfield, author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into the Christian Faith, do not exist.
Religion on the other hand is a choice a person makes. After all one may choose to be Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or any number of religions, and within each of those religions exists a plethora of further choices. A Christian might be Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant, and within Protestantism are Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians…well, you get the picture. Which is all to say that to the Left, religion is a smorgasbord offering a wide range of choices, which one may just as easily treat or not treat, much the same way as one might purchase an item at Walmart and then exchange or return that item based upon personal preference. If the choice of religion satisfies, well and good; if not, choose another or simply go without. The bottom line is that religion is a matter of choice; it is not a matter of who you are: One may be a Christian to the extent that one chooses, but not to the extent that it is his nature to be one. Ultimately, as far as the Left is concerned, one cannot BE a Christian.
And this is where the fundamental divide between us lies. The person who has been born again of the Spirit of God cannot explain to the person to whom spiritual matters are nonsense that he cannot not believe that Jesus Christ is Lord (1 Corinthians 2:14). When I say, “I did not choose God; God chose me,” I can only sound to him as either hopelessly arrogant or insane. Where we do agree is that what one chooses, one can un-choose. What he cannot accept is that I cannot un-choose Christ, because he can only accept that my faith is my choice. It is incomprehensible to him that because of God’s calling on my life my Christian faith is more fundamental to my BEING than my sexuality, manhood, or my race. He does not—indeed cannot—understand that my Christian faith sanctifies and undergirds my sexuality, manhood, race, and all that I am.
This difference in understanding of religion between Christians and the ascendant Left in our country has profound impacts on society and illumines what we are presently seeing. For instance, Christians are bound to lose in US courts when the issue concerns matters of conscience, and especially if Democrats pack them. The conscience of a doctor or nurse which is shaped by their choice of religion is bound to fall by the wayside against the transgendered person whose gender with which he or she was born does not accord with the gender with which he or she was merely “assigned at birth.” They will have to treat the patient for sexual reassignment. Similarly, Christian schools do not stand a chance arguing that it is against their deeply and historically-held religious beliefs and convictions to admit or hire people who are, so-called, LGBT. Why is this? Their sexuality is who they are; your religion is a matter of choice. For this reason, the Left can only see not admitting or hiring LGBT people as a matter of discrimination (the unpardonable sin) as they accuse Christians of “hiding behind religion” and using religion as a cloak for hatred.
Granted, the Left is not necessarily anti-religion, as long as religion is put to use in the proper way, which is for the good of society. That one should grow in grace or godliness smacks of pious platitudes which ultimately lead to hypocrisy. Religion for them is a tool, another wrench in the box. They will ask such questions as, “How might we use the sayings of Jesus to combat racism, sexism, homophobia, or promote socialism?” And to the extent that a religion or its holy book does not aid in these endeavors, then such religion or holy book is deemed irrelevant for social utility, and it is religion’s utility for society that matters to the Left.
Oh, people may follow that religion and read that holy book and worship in those buildings—unless there is a pandemic, or as we shall soon see, any other matter our government shall decide is necessary for public health and well-being. But if those wish to enter into the public square with their religion, they shall do so on the Left’s terms, understanding that religion is a choice which must bow before what they deem as not a matter of choice but one of nature—a nature which Scripture teaches is broken and corrupt before God.
