Obama: Gay “Marriage” Over Religious Freedom

In a recent address to the LGBT community, US President Barack Obama made several startling claims that only highlight the continuing animosity and intolerance towards Bible-believing Christians. He said that “Freedom of religion isn't reason enough to deny any American their constitutional rights,” referring, of course, to gay “marriage,” and he added that “it's important to recognize that some parts of the country remain uncomfortable with same-sex marriage and that it will take time for them to catch up to the majority of Americans who support such unions,” according to CBS News.

The President went on to say, “We affirm that we cherish our religious freedom and are profoundly respectful of religious traditions . . . . But we also have to say clearly that our religious freedom doesn't grant us the freedom to deny our fellow Americans their constitutional rights.” This is the same President who, in 2013, addressed Planned Parenthood, a child-killing machine (i.e., by abortion, which is the murder of children; an estimated 55 million lives have been taken by abortion clinics since Roe v. Wade in 1973), and said “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”

Frankly, President Obama cannot be talking about the same God of the Bible that I worship! Now, he has been known to selectively quote from the Bible when he gives some of his speeches, but he neglects so much of the Bible. For example, if he quoted Christ in Matthew 19, he would have to tell people that our Creator and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, taught clearly that true marriage was one man and one woman. And if President Obama quoted Romans 1, he would have to admit that homosexual behavior is sinful because of “vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:26–28).

So, according to the President of the United States, gay “marriage” is more important than religious freedom for Americans. Now, what the President—and many other leaders who support gay “marriage”—don’t seem to understand (or refuse to care about) is that those who are forced to condone gay “marriage” against their religious beliefs are having their First Amendment constitutional rights denied. If Christians aren’t allowed to act on their beliefs, such as their Bible-based belief that gay “marriage” is sinful, as God’s Word clearly states and as Jesus clearly teaches us, then what kind of religious freedom is that? It’s no freedom at all! In the end, all that happens is Christians giving up their constitutional rights—protected by the First Amendment—as the government tramples on their liberties.

The cry of Obama and others is “tolerance,” and for Christians to “catch up” with the majority that embraces same-sex unions. But, really, Obama and other gay “marriage” supporters aren’t being tolerant. They are being very intolerant of those who dare to disagree with them. This is not real tolerance at all! It’s intolerance and sometimes hatred of anyone who stands on the authority of God’s Word and calls sin what it is. Of course, this is exactly what Christians should expect since we are fighting a spiritual battle:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

People are intolerant of Christians because “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Christ Himself warned us that we would be hated because of Him:

If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18–19)

So it should come as no surprise to Christians that the world is utterly opposed to and intolerant of Christians, even while they proclaim a message of supposed tolerance.

As believers, we need to be salt and light in a culture that is dying. We live in a very post-Christian nation. America as a whole—as evidenced by our President’s statements—does not base its thinking on God’s Word but on man’s ideas. This has resulted in a nation where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). And this nation desperately needs to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel that changes hearts and minds for now and eternity. I encourage you to be salt and light among your friends, family, coworkers, and even among those you don’t know, pointing them towards Jesus Christ and the hope He offers.

How far will President Obama continue to “move the line” regarding what is morally right and wrong? He denies the origin of marriage in Genesis, but what about clothing? There is a growing movement across this nation of groups of women demanding the right to take their tops off in public because men can take their shirts off. And why should the President not approve of that “liberty”? Would he say that the origin of clothing is found in Genesis, and thus say that such nudity is wrong?

Just like the teaching of marriage is found in Genesis, so is clothing. God gave clothes because of sin (Genesis 3:21). And if the only authority to determine the meaning of marriage is fallible humans like President Obama, then why shouldn’t polygamy also be legalized?* Ultimately, anything goes, and so why shouldn’t people be allow to take their clothes off in public and have multiple spouses?

As we read in the book of Judges, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). It’s an apt verse to describe our increasingly secularized culture as well as the actions of President Obama.

President Obama needs to take heed of the warning God gives concerning those who do not walk in His light, but walk in their own light:

Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God. Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment. (Isaiah 50:10–11)

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.

*Read our article on polygamy and the Bible.