Freedom of Religion Until You Believe the Bible

by Ken Ham on November 20, 2015

It’s amazing to see the types of things that are being considered “offensive,” “insulting,” or “hateful” in our Western cultures. And we’re seeing these types of claims being made more and more about those who dare to think biblically and express themselves. Well, intolerance of biblical principles is indeed steadily increasing in supposedly democratic nations that claim religious freedom, as a news item out of my home country of Australia shows.

Wedding Rings

The Guardian (a news source in the UK) reports, “The Catholic church is being investigated by Tasmania’s anti-discrimination commissioner over claims an anti-same-sex-marriage booklet it published was offensive and insulting.” The short booklet, “Don’t Mess with Marriage,” an attempt to encourage Roman Catholics to support biblical marriage in the face of an upcoming decision about legalizing same-sex “marriage,” was reportedly distributed through the Catholic school system to Catholic families across the island state of Tasmania. And now the Catholic church is being investigated for discrimination simply because leaders stated what they believe about marriage.

I liked this quote from the news item: “If the Catholic church cannot distribute a booklet on Catholic teaching to Catholics, who can it distribute them to?” Yes, it seems like in today’s culture, everyone is free to practice their own religion until they start espousing and following principles from the Bible!

I pray evangelical Christians will publicly stand for biblical marriage in my homeland down under! And they will need to be ready to be persecuted by those who oppose the true doctrine of marriage based on God’s Word in Genesis.

But we can only expect this kind of intolerance to continue. Same-sex “marriage” supporters first claimed that they simply wanted society to accept them, but many of them have increasingly made it clear that they will not stop until everyone agrees with them and wholeheartedly embraces their lifestyle. They, and Western society as a whole, are growing increasingly intolerant of those who hold to biblical positions on marriage, morality, and the sanctity of life. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised by the growing opposition—we’re in a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12)!

I encourage you to stand firmly on God’s Word in all areas and refuse to compromise with man’s ideas about morality. God created marriage, and we aren’t at liberty to arbitrarily change what God has instituted (Genesis 2:23–24; Matthew 19:4–5). Instead, we need to compassionately and lovingly declare truth and the gospel to a world that desperately needs to hear it.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

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

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