You may be aware that a Christian couple who owned a bakery in Oregon has been targeted since 2013 for declining to bake a cake for a same-sex ceremony.
Not only has the judge in the case hit the bakers with $135,000 in damages; state officials also are trying to enforce a gag order against them, effectively preventing them from articulating the religious convictions by which they are seeking to live. (more…)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
On Wednesday Family Council President Jerry Cox released a statement applauding Van Buren County clerk Pam Bradford for declining to issue same-sex marriage licenses in her county.
“No one loses their First Amendment freedoms by becoming a public official,” Cox said. “The First Amendment prevents the government from forcing people to violate their deeply-held religious convictions. A person does not lose any freedom by serving as a county clerk.
“It is good to know there are competent legal advocacy organizations that are ready and willing, at no charge, to defend county clerks and others who do not want to violate their conscience by issuing a same-sex marriage license.”
Cox said he believes it is up to each individual county clerk to decide whether he or she will issue same-sex marriage licenses. “This boils down to personal conviction. I realize not every person in Arkansas shares the same convictions, but we all share a right to live according to our convictions. America has shown a great deal of respect for that right in the past, and I hope we continue to do so in the future.”
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Eric Metaxas has published a thoughtful commentary at the Chuck Colson Center articulating how same-sex marriage is changing marriage–not simply “expanding” it as many proponents of same-sex marriage try to argue.
“The problem is that same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples are not nearly as alike as those making these arguments would have us believe. . . .
“Last year, in a Daily Beast article provocatively entitled ‘Were Christians Right About Gay Marriage All Along?’ gay activist Jay Michaelson acknowledged that there ‘is some truth to the conservative claim that gay marriage is changing, not just expanding, marriage.’
“Michaelson cited a 2013 study finding that ‘about half of gay marriages surveyed . . . [are] not strictly monogamous.’ He called this fact ‘well-known in the gay community,’ adding that ‘we assume it’s more like three-quarters’ that are not monogamous. They are, to cite a now-popular phrase, ‘monagam-ish.’
“Michaelson admitted that his straight friends who believed that they ‘were fighting for marriage equality, not marriage redefinition,’ felt ‘duped.’ But he was unapologetic. In his words, ‘actual monogamy has never been an actual norm,’ as opposed to an ideal.”
You can listen to Metaxas’ full commentary below or read it here.
[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2015/070615_BP.mp3]