Hattie’s Hangout: The Equality Act Will Not Promote Equality
Sitting now on the Congressional floor is a direct assault to every American’s religious liberties, passing through the House and awaiting its vote in the Senate.
As promised by the Biden administration during its campaign trail, the Equality Act surfaced its way to the Capitol Building within the first 100 days of office. Beneath the layers of deceptive political jargon lies the groundwork for an evasive legislation that curtails religious convictions and ultimately deems religious exemptions as discriminatory.
The Act beckons equality, but surely will reckon discrimination for many.
Proponents for the bill argue the new enforcement of gender identity laws are an extension of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prevent discrimination toward people’s sexual orientation and gender identity. Because of last year’s Supreme Court ruling during Bostock v. Clayton County, the law of protection under the Equality Act would now cover LGBTQ individuals from being refused services based on religious conviction.
The first amendment protects the freedom of religion, but the Equality Act makes me wonder if the politicians behind the egregious bill left their constitutions in the trash, throwing order to the wayside the moment they sieged control.
On the surface, people wave their rainbow-colored flags glorifying inclusion, but this totalitarian overreach will force all members of the public to the secular world’s definition of what gender is, subjecting anyone who disagrees to legal punishment.
In case we forgot, Genesis 1:27 makes the gender question very clear stating, “so God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
The idea of gender identity spawns out of a sinful disillusionment of this truth. Satan has a grip on culture, and we are seeing the rotten fruit of a lost society. Now a man can make himself a woman, and everyone must play along with it as he plays on a women’s sports team. If you object, the culture cries “bigotry.”
Females and pre-born children stand as the biggest losers of the Equality Act, opening the door for transgender men to participate in female sports and increase abortion funding. Under President Biden’s pick for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra, the Equality Act will further pro-abortion legislation, administering them under the umbrella of healthcare.
We have allowed the rainbow, a symbol of God’s promise, to become the battle flag for a group that hates God’s truth.
If passed, those who live out their conviction on the Bible should expect the bullying shadow of progressive ideologies knocking at their door. The scrutiny Colorado baker Jack Philips faced after denying a customized wedding cake to a homosexual couple will now be the standard, not the exception.
“The Equality Act would expand that to cover federally funded programs, as well as ‘public accommodations’ — a broad category including retail stores and stadiums, for example,” according to NPR, likening the act of racial discrimination to gender identity.
If one believed nothing this radical would ever be accepted in the U.S., you must wake up. The years of passively hiding from the secular culture have now caught up.
For years, this legislation was masked as another advancement toward an accepting and tolerant culture, but the real detriments of this progressive thinking should have anyone who cares about the basic preservations of first amendment rights speaking up and out.
Christians losing the battle on culture got us to this point, now we must act.
Hattie Troutman is the Editor-in-Chief. Follow her on Twitter at @hattrout.
“In case we forgot, Genesis 1:27 makes the gender question very clear stating, “so God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.””
All that that verse says is that people are created in God’s image. It doesn’t clarify anything about gender. Because let me ask, then, is God both male and female? Or is God neither? Does God have a penis or a vagina? Does God’s body produce estrogen or testosterone? Does God wear a dress or pants? Do souls have genders? After we die and stop having bodies, do our souls continue to be male or female? Please, tell me, because you seem to base a lot of your opinions on verses you don’t seem to have read very closely, and you expect people to be held to those opinions and live their lives according to those opinions.
Also, please, stop the “persecuted American church” act. Being held accountable for the consequences of your actions is not persecution, and even if it was the American church has never experienced it, given the church’s unfettered of abuse of funds, power, and people across all denominations. Besides, I was raised on stories of martyrdom and persecution and was taught countless times how it was a cleansing fire that strengthened the church, yet time and time again American christians seem to be more horrified of persecution than the consequences of being eternal moral busybodies.
Hi there Hattie! As a concerned Christian brother, I must ask. Do you believe this article emanates and encourages its Christian audience to love God more? Do you believe it encourages your brothers and sisters to love their neighbors as themselves (Matthew 22:36-40)? Do you believe its encouraging anyone at all? While I understand the university I attend is based on Evangelical values and beliefs, this article seems to only desire to instill fear, anger, and division in the hearts of those in the Church. Furthermore, while I agree that it is scary to see our government take this turn, does it really matter? Are we not called as Christians to be concerned about God’s eternal kingdom, and not put stock into this world and its affairs (Luke 12:19-31)? Was the early church, the one of the New Testament, from the Bible we follow, EVER supported by its government? Rarely EVER. The early church was not concerned with winning a culture war, it was concerned with the Kingdom. I apologize that your article is the straw that broke this camel’s back, but it is what is heavy on my heart while reading. Perhaps this may be a wake-up call for us a believers to look out for the way Satan has a grip on our Church and our hearts, rather than the culture (Ephesians 4:27). I say all of this not as your enemy, but as your brother (2 Thessalonians 3:15)! Furthermore, I hope these words are not seen as simply affirming those this article is written against, but as a reminder to you and other brothers and sisters that we are meant to call out and judge those INSIDE the church, not those outside (1 Corinthians 5:12). I pray this reply are words that God would find affirming to His character and will, and not out of malice, but out of love. Not stirring division, but calling for unity. Much love.
I’m honestly just confused. How are any of these things supported by the way Jesus lived his life? He didn’t even condemn a woman who was brought to him to be stoned for adultery. This article is extremely inflammatory and completely misrepresents Christianity. Christianity isn’t a set of political beliefs. I’m not surprised that your argument is the exact same as the argument of Dr Falwell when VA desegregated and he made LCA as an all white high school.