(Houston, TX,
October 2014) "The battle over a controversial equal rights ordinance is
heating up in Houston, Texas, with revelations that the city has subpoenaed
church sermons, among other documentation, from five local faith leaders.
Officials have requested that these preachers deliver communications
that have focused on homosexuality or the contentious equal rights ordinance,
which these individuals have fervently opposed.
The subpoenas,
which were issued last month, seek, “all speeches, presentations, or sermons
related to the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity
prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your
possession,” according to the Houston Chronicle." (Theblaze.com)
This is Satan
continuing to chip away at our Christian Freedoms. Just a couple of years ago I
urged the members of our church to contact the leaders in government regarding
the "Hate Speech" bill that was being proposed. This bill was passed
and can be used against ministers who choose to speak out against the sins of
our nation practiced by many. Sadly; many in world and our churches ridiculed
the idea as foolish to think that the government would try to hinder what
teaching takes place in our churches. They were wrong! I believe the following
quote describes the problem well:
"Our society
is still trying to answer the question, do politics and religion mix? The first
amendment of the United States Constitution reads, "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion nor prohibit the free exercise thereof."
What the first amendment is saying is that government should stay out of
religion, but religious people can exercise their faith in the influence of
public policy.
Over the past fifty years, lawmakers have misinterpreted the Constitution. We've majored in the first part of the amendment while abandoning the second part, and in doing so, we have disenfranchised the gospel, politically, socially, judicially, and culturally. Like a sponge with the water squeezed out, ours is a society with Jesus squeezed out, and we are living in a fifty-year experiment of building a nation without God. No prayer. No Ten Commandments. No sermon at graduation. No Sabbath. No respect for marriage.
Over the past fifty years, lawmakers have misinterpreted the Constitution. We've majored in the first part of the amendment while abandoning the second part, and in doing so, we have disenfranchised the gospel, politically, socially, judicially, and culturally. Like a sponge with the water squeezed out, ours is a society with Jesus squeezed out, and we are living in a fifty-year experiment of building a nation without God. No prayer. No Ten Commandments. No sermon at graduation. No Sabbath. No respect for marriage.
Those things may
be contributing to factors to some of today's problems: We have massive teen
drug abuse, school shooting sprees, and an adolescent suicide rate up 350
percent since 1960. It's time to ask, cannot politics and religion mix?" (Stephen
M. Crotts)
It's time that we
understand the importance of God's Word once again. It's time for us to stand
and be counted and call into account those who govern us. Jesus said this in John 12:47-50 "If anyone hears my words but does not keep
them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to
save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept
my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I
did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all
that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever
I say is just what the Father has told me to say."
