Iowa state Rep. Terry Baxter wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend that the Supreme Court “crucified both freedom of speech and the freedom of religion as guaranteed in our constitution” when it struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, claiming that preaching from the Bible “can now be prosecuted as legally incorrect.”
“Just as faithful Christians suffered in the coliseums of Rome for remaining true to the Bible and their religious conscience, so many Christians are about suffer in the legal coliseums of America,” he wrote. “Preaching the gospel just became a hate crime!” Except that it didn’t, and same-sex marriage has been legal in Iowa since 2009, and people like Baxter are freely able to denounce same-sex marriage without being thrown to the lions.
Welcome to the “United Corinth of America.” Yesterday, for the first time our history, five unelected members of the Supreme Court officially placed our country in the final state of decline in our drift away from the God of Creation. (Please take time to read Romans 1:18-32. Pay special attention to verses 26-27.)
This debacle is about to give birth to the worse religious persecution in our 239 year history as a nation. Just as faithful Christians suffered in the coliseums of Rome for remaining true to the Bible and their religious conscience, so many Christians are about suffer in the legal coliseums of America.
Preaching the gospel just became a hate crime! Sins of sexual immorality are now constitutionally protected in the same category as age, race and gender. The problem is that God decides a persons [sic] age, race and gender, but human depravity dictates a persons [sic] morality.
Apart from a biblical definition of sin there can be no salvation. Why? Because Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Many forms of sexual sin are now constitutionally protected and will receive equal protection and promotion in our classrooms, curriculum, media, public sector and courts.
The definition of discrimination now includes preaching against sexual expressions. To preach the gospel and call for confession, repentance and conversion can now be prosecuted as a hate crime. Yet from my perspective, the greatest expression of love is to help a sinner turn from the error of their ways and find a new life in Christ.
The Supreme Court ruling yesterday crucified both freedom of speech and the freedom of religion as guaranteed in our constitution. For the past few decades the gospel has been viewed as politically incorrect, it can now be prosecuted as legally incorrect. As a Representative in the Iowa legislature, I have discovered that the sting of new legislation always shows up in the unintended consequences. The implications of this ruling are staggering.
