Yesterday the Family Research Council hosted a panel discussion on “Marriage and Civil Rights: How to Respond Rightly If the Court Gets It Wrong.” The panel consisted of Keith Fournier – the founder and chairman of the Common Good Foundation and deacon in the Roman Catholic diocese of Richmond, Dr. Alveda King – pastoral associate and director of African-American Outreach for Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries, daughter of civil rights activists and niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Hon. Ken Blackwell – senior fellow for Family Empowerment at the Family Research Council and formerly U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, Undersecretary of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Mayor of Cincinnati. The panelists discussed the proper response to a Supreme Court decision forcing all states to recognize same-sex marriage, the repercussions of such a decision on religious freedom, and whether same-sex marriage could be properly considered a civil rights issue (like those the panelist had spent their lives on).
Blackwell began by saying that a “wooden-headed decision” by the Supreme Court forcing recognition of same-sex marriage would be a “test of how we respond as a nation, as believers.” He quoted Psalm 11, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” and answered, “suit up” referencing the armor of God in Ephesians 6. He suggested that Christians look to Nehemiah’s rebuilding of Jerusalem where rebuilding was undertaken as a community effort, each person responsible for a section they could handle.
Dr. King echoed his call to persevere in good works, quoting St. Paul, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” She portrayed the issue as a sin problem and called on all Christians to repent. “If anyone is sinning, we must stop and we must repent.” She asked with St. Paul “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” Dr. King argued that Christians need to continue speaking out. “Truth, crushed to the earth, will rise again, but we must stand with truth.”
Deacon Fournier noted how this issue has brought Christians of nearly every denomination together. “The ground is shifting, and we are Christians together now.” He argued that Christians’ task is larger than just defending natural marriage – “We need to get to work Christianizing the nation.” Fournier pointed out several Supreme Court decisions – Dred Scott (Blacks cannot be citizens or have rights), Buck v. Bell (permitting compulsory sterilization of the “unfit”), and Roe v. Wade (creating a right to abortion) – noting that “This is not the first time we are facing a wrong decision from the Court.”
Regarding the question of discrimination against those who do not support same-sex marriage, Blackwell argued citing the Declaration of Independence, “Our human rights – our rights of conscience – are not grants of governments, they are gifts from God.” He argued that every “every totalitarian regime, every big welfare state regime” wants to destroy the family, the “incubator of liberty,” and silence the Church as a means of creating dependency. Fournier noted the history of repressive regimes is full of examples of governments attempting to turn moral issues into religious issues as a means of marginalizing and dismissing them. He warned that early Christians were punished and killed as enemies of the state and that “we’re moving into that and we need to be prepared.” Dr. Alveda King noted the persecution many children do and will face in schools and the confusion that same-sex marriage brings to the rest.”
Regarding same-sex marriage as a civil rights issue, all the panelist (all civil rights leaders) were united in their opposition. Dr. King stressed the permanence of natural law despite the errors of man-made law, arguing that same-sex marriage is “physically, biologically, scientifically, emotionally, and definitely spiritually impossible.” She argued that “We’re created – all of us – in the image of God. We are all born into sin.” Accordingly, the argument that one may be born gay is “no argument – be born again!” Deacon Fournier also argued the impossibility of a civil right to same-sex marriage, “nobody has the right to destroy a God-inspired institution.”
Though the outlook for the immediate future may look grim, the panelists were hopeful and unafraid. Dr. King pronounced, “Our work will be harder, but it will not be impossible.” Blackwell noted the similarity of the work of re-Christianizing the nation to the Civil rights movement – a movement that was largely successful despite enormous difficulties. He quoted St. John Paull II’s oft repeated line: “Be not afraid.” He urged Christians to look to Scripture, recalling when his grandmother told him “The bible will help you choose the path of conviction over the path of convenience.” Deacon Fournier charged, “These may be difficult times, but they are our times. We were born and born-again for these times.”
Comment by brookspj on June 11, 2015 at 5:05 pm
“Dr. Alveda King noted the persecution many children do and will face in schools and the confusion that same-sex marriage brings to the rest.”
You want to talk about persecution in schools? How about the children who grew up being called fags while being threatened and bullied by others? Don’t tell me it doesn’t happen. I went to school and late 90s-2000s. I saw it first-hand. Too many Christians stood by silently while LGTB students were being persecuted in middle and high schools across America. Some even supported the persecution under the guise of “religious liberty”. Some tried to tie the hands of teachers trying to combat the bullying. Then again what can I expect with from a panel commissioned by the FRC, an organization with a long history of persecution of LGTB persons, one whose leadership is currently being charged in connection to recent anti-laws in Uganda?
Comment by JeffreyRo55 on June 12, 2015 at 7:48 am
Yeah, right. Christians are supposed to quit our jobs and roam the halls of schools, bashing the heads of bullies. Your posts are so moronic. Apparently you think the purpose of Christianity is to make sexual deviates feel good about themselves. That’s called “self-serving.” If you want to feel good about yourselves, repent of your sins and turn to God. Turning a church into a Sunday gathering place for sodomites is just plain evil.
Comment by brookspj on June 12, 2015 at 9:17 am
The purpose of the Christianity is to bring good news to the poor. Kids are getting death threats from other students because of the sexuality, being stuff into lockers, and being shunned by peers, parents, and teachers who’ve been listening to psycho-babble from Tony Perkins that’s led them to believe they have to treat all gays like the lepers of ancient times. If those kids aren’t the very types of people Jesus came to give good news to, I don’t know who is. Sinner or not, they don’t deserve to have to walk in fear of persecution. No one does. And where the church has stood on the side of the bullies and the persecutors rather than the victims, the church has failed in its mission. Before we say or do anything else in regards to homosexuality we must confess our failures to serve Christ and to serve our fellow man/woman who is suffering at the hands of others. We failed LGTB persons. Until we admit to that, there is little hope of every bringing them or their friends to our churches.
Comment by JeffreyRo55 on June 12, 2015 at 2:25 pm
So it is mandatory for Christians to brainwash public schoolkids into believing that the Christian ethical system is wrong.
There’s no difference at all between you and an atheist, except the atheist honestly admits he wishes to destroy Christianity.
Comment by brookspj on June 12, 2015 at 2:56 pm
Christian ethical system? If you think bullying and threatening children in school because of their sexuality is ethical or Christian you are truly lost.
Is it not conservative Christians who say they love the sinner, but hate the sin? Well from here it looks like you are failing on the first account. Whether you think it’s your job to make them feel good about themselves, you can’t deny that it is your charge to show them they are loved by God and by you. To fail in that is to fail Christ. Nothing has hurt the cause of Christianity more than the failure of us Christians to follow Christ’s own teachings.
Comment by MarcoPolo on June 16, 2015 at 9:17 am
There is no plan by Atheists to destroy Christianity.
The two can mutually exist without destroying the other.
Peace!
Comment by MarcoPolo on June 11, 2015 at 5:59 pm
What should really scare anybody of faiths other than Christianity, is Deacon Fournier’s charge to “Christianize the Nation”.
That shouldn’t sit well in a nation of diverse peoples with diverse faiths.
This is not good for anybody who believes in freedom!
It may be all peachy for Christians, but that’s NOT acknowledging or embracing what America is all about! DIVERSITY of Faiths, Race, Gender, Language, Arts, Cultures, etc…
Personally, this sounds more like a lynch party against those who by nature happen to be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered.
Marriage was devised by Man. It serves all who enter it with the same value. It will not change its intent by allowing for expansion of its participants.
The Institution of Marriage CAN accommodate everybody!
Let’s not be stingy with what we embrace, let’s open our eyes and hearts.
Comment by Diaris on June 14, 2015 at 7:52 am
Troll
Comment by Jeremy Long on June 11, 2015 at 10:04 pm
Does it matter what any member of the King family believes about marriage? No Christian can condone homosexuality or homosexual “marriage,” it’s that simple. The Bible is clear enough.
Comment by brookspj on June 12, 2015 at 10:59 am
Every time someone says “The Bible is clear” or “The Bible clearly states…” it means they know it isn’t so clear. If it were so clear then you wouldn’t need to keep saying so.
Comment by 0pus35 on June 12, 2015 at 9:59 am
Issues like SSM do have the positive effect of separating the real Christians from the faux variety. Side with God, or side with a world that hates light and purity?
Comment by Mark Bell on June 12, 2015 at 9:01 pm
Same-sex “marriage” is not a “civil rights issue,” it’s obvious to any sane person that some “right” that is magically “discovered” in the Constitution after 200 years never existed at all. We live in a sick culture, where the government is as sick as the voters. If America were sane, the dialogue between homosexuals and the government would go something like this:
“We want to be able to marry our homosexual sex partners.”
“Tough!”
But we don’t have a government of adults, we have government of wimps who respond to the loudest whiners. The wimp-and-whiner coalition is proving to be the death of American culture.