The Supreme Court just handed a historic loss to those of us who still believe “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 22:5), as well as those of us who believe laws must be interpreted using their original intent.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. stated the following in his dissent with today’s decision:
“There is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation”
They invented another new right out of thin air.
The Alliance Defending Freedom represented owner of Harris Funeral Homes named Tom Rost, who was sued by a male funeral home director employed by him who wanted to start dressing as a woman.
The Alliance Defending Freedom states the following regarding this decision on its website:
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruled that unelected officials and courts do have the authority to redefine the law—bypassing Congress—and that “sex” in Title VII includes “gender identity” and “sexual orientation.”
This is devastating news for Harris Funeral Homes, which has faithfully served grieving families for more than 100 years. Please pray for this family-owned business. And pray as well for all Americans. Because this ruling has implications for us all…
Redefining “sex” to mean “gender identity” creates chaos, with widespread consequences for everyone.
It undermines dignity, privacy, and equal opportunities for women.
It could compel professionals from all walks of life to refer to colleagues with pronouns and other sex-specific terms according to gender identity rather than biology.
It puts employers like Tom in difficult positions—requiring them to treat men who believe themselves to be women as if they are in fact women, even if that results in violating the bodily privacy rights of other employees.
The bottom line is that ignoring biological reality in our laws threatens our freedoms of conscience, religion, and speech.
There’s more.
By ruling in the similar case decided today that “sex” in federal employment law also includes “sexual orientation,” the Court made it more difficult for employers and employees who hold the longstanding, honorable belief that marriage is only between one man and one woman.
The ruling could prohibit a religious employer from declining to recognize a same-sex relationship as a “marriage” for purpose of benefits. It could subject a small business owner to liability if she discusses her beliefs about marriage while at work. It could even result in an employee being disciplined or fired for even mentioning her beliefs about marriage, as happened to Chief Kelvin Cochran, who was fired as Atlanta’s Fire Chief after writing a small book about his beliefs in Christ and about marriage for his private, men’s Bible study.
That is why this Supreme Court ruling should concern us all.”
This battle in our ongoing second American Civil war was a defeat for us today. But the war is not over with.
It is interesting to note that the Atlanta Fire Chief mentioned above actually won a discrimination law suit case against the city that fired him for expounding on his Christian beliefs outside of his job and it was a 1.2 million dollar settlement.
My point is that religion was a protected class long before the invented class of LGTQB was and it is enshrined in the first amendment to the Constitution.
Certainly, this ruling is going to make life very challenging for both Christian and non-Christian business owners. But as Christians we would should make full use of our protected class of religion in our civil rights laws just as the Apostle Paul made full use of his civil rights under Roman law in Acts 22:24-29.
We who believe in freedom of religion can fill the courts up with just as many lawsuits as the LGTBQ folks can and we should.