A Sad Day for Freedom From Sin

December 18, 2010 was a sad day for the cause of liberty. The United States Senate voted 65-31 to rescind the seventeen-year “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy in the American forces. On the heels of a 250-175 vote in the House of Representatives, largely along party lines, homosexuality is now “free” to openly flourish in the barracks or foxhole.

By this infamous vote, The United States government now openly condones and encourages homosexual behavior among our fighting men and women. The last bastion of discipline and moral order in the United States has been breached, not by an invading army, but by a destructive Lame Duck Congress.

Maybe the pen is mightier than the sword.

With the stroke of President Obama signing this grievous bill, the military, as we have known it for two hundred and thirty-four years, will be crippled.

This is a sad day for real liberty–which is freedom from sin.

We’ll get to the true definition of freedom in a moment, but first the disturbing facts about the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) rescission.

Liberal Democrats, many of whom lost in the Nov 2 election, were the greatest culprits in this homosexualization of the armed forces. Both of my Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, voted for the repeal. But eight Republicans also joined them in the tragic vote: Richard Burr of North Carolina, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, George Voinovich of Ohio, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, John Ensign of Nevada, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.

As Family Research Research Council points out, our fighters were treated like pawns by those meant to support and defend them. (Read their excellent article here.) Here’s how Gary Randall of the Faith & Freedom Network described the tragedy:

“Congress has said ‘yes’ to open homosexuality in the military. Over the loud and passionate pleas from Senator John McCain, and concerns expressed by military leaders who serve in combat, the Senate caved to homosexual activists, joined President Obama in his attempt to appease the activists and retain their vote, and said yes to a social experiment that will have both ‘intended’ and ‘unintended’ consequences.”

“The homosexual victory was aided by a number of Republicans. McCain was not one of them. He said of our fighting men and women, ‘They will do what is ask of them, but don’t think there won’t be consequences.'”

“You have witnessed another step down a slippery moral decline. And there will be consequences.
The Alliance Defense Fund issued a statement following the vote saying, ‘The Senate’s cave-in to pressure from activists to impose homosexual behavior on our military will place troops’ religious liberties in unprecedented jeopardy.’ They say the first casualty will likely be the religious freedom of chaplains.”

This is the “great freedom” that Congress gave us on December 18.

Incredible.

Abraham Lincoln, a founder and champion of the modern-day Republican Party, would also be appalled. One of his most famous quotes, which has been a clarion principle of our Christian-based republic  for the past 150 years is this:

“No man has a right to do wrong.”

Let that truth sink into you deeply. It will change your view of how to define “civil” rights.

Of course, the liberal media doesn’t share Lincoln’s view. Led by secular cheerleaders such as the New York Times and the Associated Press, numerous papers, blogs, and e-letters hailed the  the news of the defeat of DADT as a great triumph for civil rights. Quoting Senator Joe Liebermann, a staunch supporter of doing away with the ban on homosexual behavior,” the gleeful networks proclaimed:

“We righted a wrong. Today we’ve done justice.”

The New York Times openly stated their end-game purpose, that “integrating openly gay troops within the military will lead to greater acceptance in the civilian world.”

The progressives want a secular, not a godly America.

Barack Obama went even further when he said, “It’s time to close this chapter in our history. It is time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed.”

Sounds good–but it’s nonsense. You don’t choose race or gender, and religion and creeds should be protected areas of conscience.

Not homosexuality. For all of history, and in all religions, homosexual behavior has been viewed as a perversion of the normal sexual relationship with graphic and destructive consequences. It’s just as hurtful as incest, fornication, adultery, pedophilia, and bestiality.

All of these sexual perversions distort God’s moral standards and hurt human beings. They should be discouraged by any just and compassionate society that really cares for its people

And no sexual deviancy should be tolerated when you’re fighting for your country.

We’ve got it backwards–and Congress just forced it on the military.

Isaiah is considered Israel’s greatest prophet, and his book is the second longest in the Bible next to the Psalms. In chapter five, Isaiah goes to great lengths to discuss how God blessed and planted the ancient Hebrew nation in good moral and spiritual soil. But over time, they rejected his laws and principles. “What more could I have done?” agonizes the heart of God over a nation that turned away from his standards of right and wrong (Isaiah 5:4).

Nothing, really.

They just didn’t listen.

Here is the end result that Isaiah describes for those who pervert God’s justice: “Destruction is certain for those who say that evil is good and good is evil; that dark is light and light is dark…Destruction is certain for those who think they are wise and consider themselves to be clever…Their roots will rot and their flowers wither, for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty. They have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:20-24).

Israel was severely judged when it turned God’s standards of right and wrong or its head. Do you think it will be any different for us?

I don’t think so.

Wrong was made right through Saturday’s vote. Vast injustice was perpetrated on the US military–even against the wishes of those who fight in close quarters on the front lines (58% of Marines are strongly opposed to changing the policy.)

But the politicians don’t care for them or this country. They are committed to the secularization of America via social experimentation i.e. trashing all aspects of Judeo-Christian standards.

One of the things we learn from this vote and the cultural battle in which we are engaged is that there are two different visions of “freedom” that are being fought for in America today. These two contrasting philosophies go back to the two beings behind them–God on the side of righteousness, and Satan on the side of darkness.

Satan’s concept of liberty is pretty simple. He wants people to be “free from God and his standards.” Satan Himself rebelled against God’s created order and has been encouraging other moral beings to reject God’s ways ever since. Through the worldview of secularism, here’s how Satan markets his deceptive brand of “freedom:”

• Begin by questioning the rightness or wrongness of sexual choices. Make it a matter of “personal preferences” or “lifestyle choices.” All sin begins when we follow Satan’s lead in setting ourselves up as “God” in our moral choices.
• Draw people into immorality in all its forms. Start with the warm-ups of pornography and mental fantasy, then encourage them to “experiment” for themselves with sex outside of marriage and in whatever form or with whatever partners “they” desire.
• Convince them through darkening their minds that none of these actions are immoral. They’re just choices that all human beings are allowed to make.
• Once trapped in immorality, the heart of the Satanic strategy manifests itself. Jesus said that Satan’s clear purpose is “to kill and destroy” (John 10:10). All forms of immorality, especially the unnaturalness of homosexuality, destroys human dignity, proper relationships, family, health, relationship with God, and ultimately leads to eternal destruction.
• But that’s not all. Satan’s next step is to ridicule those who are moral and adhering to God’s standards. Make them look like the prudes and the bigots.
• Finally, the goal is to persecute the godly, beginning with “hate speech” and even imprisonment.

Notice Gary Randall’s warning of the consequences of repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in the US military: “The  first casualty will likely be the religious freedom of chaplains.”

Silence Christian chaplains. Then Christians in general. Or even imprison them for speaking out against homosexuality.

Satan’s “freedom  from God” destroys those who do it and those who resist it.

Doesn’t sound like liberty to me.

It’s not.

Real freedom, the one that America was founded on, was not freedom from God and his wise standards for living. It’s freedom to live for God.

Freedom is not doing what you want; It’s having the wisdom and power to do what you ought.

In the realm of sexuality it’s being smart and humble enough to do things the way God designed them, for our good, others’ good, and for his honor and glory. It means:

• Staying away from pornography which corrupts the mind.
• Not sleeping with your boy friend, girlfriend or fiance before marrying them.
• Not having sex with a close relative.
• Not having same gender sex with anyone.
• Marrying God’s choice from the opposite sex–a conjugal joining in relationship which is both natural, beautiful, and produces children (to read a great new paper on marriage published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, click here.)
• Being faithful to the one you marry for a lifetime.
• Having children in God’s way and time and raising them in the fear and love of God.

This is true sexual freedom because it is freedom from destructive self autonomy and sin.

Jesus said truly that “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is a part of the family forever. So is the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34-36).

True freedom is freedom from sin, not from God.

By rescinding the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, our Congressional leaders are doing nothing less than encouraging homosexuals to stay in their sin, bringing tension and sexual lust into the intimate quarters of our fighting forces, and promoting the armed forces social destruction.

On December 18 we lost an important battle. But we must continue to fight because we love God and we love people. Let’s pray that this action will be overturned in the 112th Congress because it breaks the bond of trust that must exist between the military and those who oversee the armed forces in the Pentagon and Congress.

Let’s ask the new House in January to defund the repeal of DADT. Then we will work to get fresh voices in the Senate and move to reinstate the law.

A pillar of America’s exceptional past is freedom from sin through Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray during this Christmas season that God’s Son will lead us back to true liberty.