Opinion: Christians Must Combat The Falsehoods In The Equality Act With Biblical Wisdom And Love

The 117th Congress of the United States of America passed “AN ACT: to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes,” otherwise known as The Equality Act, or HR 5, on Feb. 25, 2021. 

This bill, passed in an effort to aid the LGBTQ+ community, pregnant and nursing mothers, and many others, has become a major point of discussion within the Christian community. Ken Ham, Founder of Answers in Genesis, posted an article by Franklin Graham with the caption, “religious freedom has been under attack for some time, but this would be a disastrous blow.” Many politicians and religious leaders alike have spoken out about the dangers of a bill like this, one that has been passed by the House.

While reading the Equality Act in its entirety, a few things became clear about the state of our nation and the future of the American Church:

Religious freedom is not necessary for the Church to prosper.

In America, one of the greatest boasts that we, the religious crowd, have is that we have the freedom to practice religion without discrimination or legal punishment. This freedom is argued as the primary reason that the nation was founded. This is a freedom that I personally enjoy. The ability to go to church and worship the King corporately without fear of anything more than verbal scrutiny is a beautiful thing. I truly would not be the person I am today if I had not been raised in an environment that allows me the freedom and space to praise God and talk about His glory.

But that’s not the beauty of the Church.

The beauty of a Gospel-driven church is that it thrives under persecution. I don’t mean the persecution that most churches face in America; that mockery of the songs they sing or the outrageousness of their faith. 

I mean violent persecution. I mean the drag-you-out-of-church-and-throw-you-in-jail kind of persecution. The kind of persecution we see in the book of Acts is far worse than what we see today, and the church seemed to produce more real Christians under such danger.

Acts 14:21-22 says, “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:21-22).

Luke writes with great intentionality, noting that even though Paul was just stoned (almost to the same demise as Stephen), the Gospel continued to go out. The most poignant part of this verse is Paul’s encouragement to the church. He makes the claim, as he does in many of his own epistles, that the church under tribulation is the church that will see the kingdom of God. Take this encouragement, hold down the “CTRL” key, and press ‘C.’ Now drag it to the current situation and paste it there. In this Act, the government is redefining terms that God ordained. It would be naive to deny the looming pressure that the Church will face. It would be even more naive, and a reflection of American bias that takes precedence over Biblical knowledge, to say that losing religious freedom would ruin the church.

The Church is the light of the world. Did you expect it to be bright outside?

Redefining terms does not redefine truth.

In the Equality Act, there are certain clauses that allude to a redefinition of the terms, “sex” and “gender.” In Section 1101 (Definition and Rules), the bill defines gender identity as, “the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, regardless of the individual’s designated sex at birth.” It further defines sex as including, “(A) a sex stereotype, (B) pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition, (C) sexual orientation or gender identity, and (D) sex characteristics, including intersex traits.” It seems that much of this Act is an attempt to legally change terms such as sex and gender to mean something more accepting and tolerant of all sexual practices.

This is truly a time to be bold. The rise of a new sexual revolution is impending, and Christians must combat it with love and truth. We are tasked with a somewhat paradoxical command. The truth must be spoken; we cannot allow it to be suppressed in our own lives or in the lives of others. Yet, we must speak the truth in love. We must be motivated by love, or nothing else. The truth will not change. If it somehow succumbed to published papers and passed acts, truth would be something ever changing; worse still, it would be something evil. The people changing truth would be doing so out of a desire to worship another god. The people attempting to permanently redefine gender and sex are doing so in rebellion to the Word of the Lord.

Justin Bower is an Opinion Writer.