BY RUSSELL TURNER
GOVERNMENT AND TAIL CHASING
We humans have a bad habit of wanting to hear only one side of an issue; often times people will resort to intimidation or even violence to silence the opposing side. Sadly, the practices of intimidation and violence have been effective. I have been involved in many campaigns on various issues, and I have made it my policy to be honest with my opinions and have stated them publicly. At times I have asked other people that shared the same position to voice their opinions as well; many times I have been told that they didn’t want to go public because it might hurt business. I am sure that me being vocal has caused me to lose business, but I have the belief that good government is all of our business. Taking a stand and doing the right thing is very seldom accepted or appreciated, even Jesus Christ found himself at odds with the people in power in his day. I often wonder where we would be today if he had done the political thing and asked for approval from the political class before he delivered his sermons. An issue has arisen in Texas that should be of concern to people of the Christian faith.
In Harris County, Texas, the city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality and gender identity. Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor, and two homosexual city council members pushed through a non-discrimination ordinance that protects homosexuals and lesbians. Despite opposition to the ordinance by local churches and their pastors, the ordinance passed 11-6 in May. Now the City of Houston is demanding that five pastors turn over sermon notes and private communications with church members. If those ministers fail to turn over the information they could be held in contempt of court.
In our country it has become acceptable to attack the very concepts and values that our nation was founded upon. Our nation was founded upon the Judeo Christian belief system, codes of conduct concerning all aspects of our lives are in those scriptures and they are not limited to homosexual behavior. Unlike other religions, those scriptures do not advocate violence to anyone that does not believe in the Christian faith. The actions of the city of Houston have exceeded the authority of a government in a so-called free society. Our government, at one level or the other, is telling us what to eat and where to live; now government wants to tell us what to think. Government seems to want to become the supreme power in our lives and to remove God and any moral teaching to future generations. If memory serves me correctly this same approach was tried in communist Russia; see how well that turned out.
The founders of this nation understood that without self control and good moral values our system of government is totally inadequate. Right now our government reminds me of a dog chasing his own tail; government needs to stop its tail chasing and stop trying to control every aspect of our lives.
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