July 10, 2016 6:35 AM

If you think bigotry and exclusion make you a good Christian, YERDOONITRONG!!

Iowa’s law protecting LGBT people from discrimination should be overturned, two churches are arguing, because they want to be able to discriminate against transgender people who might come to their services. The Fort Des Moines Church of Christ, represented by the anti-LGBT Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a federal lawsuit this week against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission seeking to completely knockdown the LGBT-inclusive Iowa Civil Rights Act. Cornerstone World Outreach, an historically litigious church based in Sioux City, similarly sent a demand letter to the Commission Tuesday afternoon with representation from another anti-LGBT legal organization, the First Liberty Institute. The ADF suit argues that Fort Des Moines holds religious beliefs that do not recognize the gender identities of transgender people…. [T]he church’s leaders have even devised a written policy that dictates that visitors to the church can only use the restrooms that match the “biological sex” they were assigned at birth. They are afraid to post this policy on the church’s website or distribute it in the church’s bulletin, however, because they fear it will bring them in violation of the state’s law.

My first reaction to this story- well, my second…after I stopped laughing- was that if you call yourself a Christian and hold “religious beliefs that don’t recognize the gender identities of transgender people,” YERDOONITRONG!!!

I don’t believe in God, but as I’ve mentioned on many an occasion previously, I remember enough from the Sunday School classes my parents forced me to attend to know that Jesus Christ wasn’t a hater. He didn’t roll with homophobes, racists, bigots, and those who belittled and devalued those who were different. He never degraded and reviled anyone as “less than.” He wasn’t about hatred, intolerance, rejection, and exclusion. No, the Jesus Christ I was taught about preached love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion. He taught that Christians should love and accept others for who they are.

The fine, morally upright “Christians” at the Fort Des Moines Church of Christ seem to have forgotten (if they ever knew at all) what the Lord and Savior they claim to revere actually taught. For folks seemingly so committed to their faith (“religious beliefs that do not recognize the gender identities of transgender people”), they display a shocking lack of knowledge and acceptance of the tenets of that faith.

ADF argues that the exemption doesn’t actually apply to Fort Des Moines. This claim hinges not on the wording of the law itself, but on the wording on a brochure the Civil Rights Commission has published about the impact of the protections[.]

Fort Des Moines asserts that “all of the Church’s services, events, activities, and all other religious programming” are open to the public, and thus the Commission could foreseeably rule against the church for publishing an anti-trans rule. Cornerstone’s demand letter similarly targets the brochure’s guidance as evidence of “the Commission’s express intent to target churches singularly for enforcement.”

While Cornerstone’s demand letter simply calls for a retraction of the brochure’s language, the Fort Des Moines suit asks that the entire Iowa Civil Rights Act — and its statewide protections for the LGBT community — be declared unconstitutional and unenforceable.

In other words, these shining examples of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ want the freedom to be able to discriminate against those they deem “less than.” Call me cynical, but in what world is that even faintly redolent of living a Christ-like life? How does using your religious faith as the basis for demeaning and degrading those who love, live, think, and/or believe differently demonstrate Christian love and compassion? What is it about your “faith” that leads you to believe that you’re a superior being and divinely blessed with the right to discriminate against others for being Not Like Us ©?

I’ll grant that some faith traditions are more Conservative than others, and I have no problem with them…if they’re honest and their lives reflect the teachings of Jesus. What I fail to understand is how anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ can be OK with discriminating against His children? This isn’t to say that one must agree with or blithely accept their lifestyle; you can take offense or be revolted if you’re so moved. What you don’t have is the right to scream “RELIGIOUS FREEDOM!!!” to justify your hatred and bigotry…when it has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sadly, I’m not certain there are enough reserved parking in the Hell I don’t believe in to accommodate the holier-than-thou zealots at Fort Des Moines Church of Christ. Perhaps they could carpool??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 10, 2016 6:35 AM.

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