A Defense of Why I Will Vote Republican: Religious Freedom and the Devastating Effects of the “Equality” Act

The number 1 reason I will vote for President Trump and the conservative movement is their stance on religious freedom.

Let’s go back to the Bible verse from the Introduction to this series.

‘The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

In light of that, my number 1 priority is to protect our right as citizens to worship God and to live according to his word. 

Now, I know this might not seem important to many people.  Maybe it seems like the economy, or global warming or abortion is more important, but again, in light of the command to love God with all my heart and all my soul and with all my mind, I need to vote for candidates who support my right and every human’s right to worship and serve God AND who preserve our rights to not violate our spiritual consciences. 

While this might not seem practical, let me show you how this plays out.

Have you heard of the Equality Act? 

If not, you need to look it up.  Here are a couple of links to a summary, a commentary, and then the proposal itself.

https://www.frc.org/equalityact2019

https://www.heritage.org/gender/heritage-explains/the-equality-act

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/5/text

Conservatives DO NOT support this act, liberals and the leftist movement do, and it is a HIGH priority for them. ALL parents, ALL medical professionals, and ALL people need to be aware of the DIRE consequences of this act.  “Equality” is a nice package to put this in, but this package is very deceptive and tyrannical.

First of all, when Clinton was in office, he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) with widespread support from both parties.  It is kind of a middle ground for all whether we are someone who professes a faith or not.  To summarize, it says we need to have some basic common sense. It allows for the possibility of help when your religious rights are infringed upon.  The EA removes the possibility of this protection forcing people, especially those of faith, to do things directly in opposition to both their religious beliefs AND their moral consciences. 

While I have categorized this under Religious Freedom, it is also a huge moral issue for all of us not matter your religious affiliation.  Let’s dig in.

What is the “Equality” Act?

This new Equality Act mandates special privileges in the private and public sector for sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).  While it is compared to the Civil Rights acts, it is quite different in that the Civil Rights acts are based on identifiable physical characteristics, like race and age, whereas the whole point of SOGI is that it is fluid.  On any given day you get to choose what you want to be and it is not readily observable. 

What is the harm in an “Equality”Act?

The detriment to society from this act is so extensive; I will not be able to outline all of the devastation.  My intent is to sound the alarm. 

1. Girls:  
   • Sports:  This act allows for biological males to compete in women’s sports.  This is ALREADY happening with dire consequences.  If you are a parent of girls, you might as well tell them they will never actually win in sports if this bill passes.  I have personally seen this play out in one of the races we produce.  A biological male, who used to compete and place very high among males, is now claiming to be a girl.  He raced in our women’s event and guess what.  He came in first.  Why?  Because he is a he.
   • Funding and scholarships:  Over the years, our nation has worked to bring equality to woman and help them succeed in education and the workplace giving scholarships and special business loans to women.  This would again be negated, as biological men, identifying, claiming, hoping to be a woman, would be eligible for these funds.
   • Shelters and public accommodations:  Again we, as noble citizens, have diligently worked to protect and provide safe havens for abused women.   Shelters would no longer be able to keep biological males out.  Think of the scenario.  Under this act, a woman’s abuser could come “identifying” as a woman and the shelter would be legally obligated to let him in.  This provision also applies to women’s bathrooms and showers. 
2. Children in Foster Care: 
   • This act shuts down faith-based organizations that provide foster care services for children, EVEN though faith based organizations allow LGBT couples and individuals to foster and adopt.   Faith based organizations are a HUGE portion of the effort to care for these children.  What will be next?  Even though as people of faith we allow kids to be placed in the LGBT community, now we will be discriminated against based on this “Equality Act?” 
3. The Medical Community
   • Pay attention here.  The “Equality Act” includes an “establishment that provides healthcare.”  I am going to quote directly out of a paper written by Mary Beth Waddell, J.D. of the Family Research Council.
     • “Medical professionals will be required to offer hormone treatment and surgery for individuals with gender dysphoria, regardless of their moral OR medical opinions about the actual health benefit of assisting individuals to physically transform their sex.”
   • Did you get that? So, even if the physician does his or her professional duty and determines based on his or her expert opinion that these things are NOT in the best interest of the person or child, they will be required to provide the service.
   • This would be like requiring a physician to prescribe a drug they know is harmful or amputating a leg they know can be saved. Why, under the guise of sex, does this seem ok? It is not and it puts medical providers in a terrible position. If the patient really wants it, they can go see another doctor or medical provider versus passing an act that requires someone to perform LIFE ALTERING changes when they KNOW they are not in the person’s best interest.
4. Parents:
   • I will admit that I do not know what the “Equality Act” says about parents but I do know that there is a HUGE push by the left and the LGBTQ movement to indoctrinate kids to the inadequacy of their parents. Basically, there is a movement to allow kids, aka those under 18, to make all of their own choices, REGARDLESS of your loving opinion as a parent. This would involve getting an abortion, having access to contraception, and hormonal therapy and sex change procedures.
   • Parents have already lost custody of their children for not allowing these things to happen insinuating that the state knows better than the parent.
   • Here is a link to one article though there are many more movements and examples.  Truth be told, children are easily indoctrinated and mislead. If WE do not have the right to protect them as parents, we will have gone down a devastating road. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327879944_Transgender_Children_and_the_Right_to_Transition_forthcoming_in_American_Journal_of_Bioethics

This act would also impact schools, small businesses, insurance companies and virtually every other public and private sector activity.  The litigation will go through the roof with fines and legal fees inhibiting anyone’s ability to do business.

In reality, this act creates INEQUALITY and prohibits religious freedom.  On the alter of “equality” for this very small portion of our community identifying as transgender, we will sacrifice our girls ability to succeed in sports and their safety in public spaces.  We will sacrifice the good of 99.5% to attempt to provide “good” for the .5%.  I, being a person of faith believe the “good” we can provide for this portion of the population is to affirm who they were born to be rather than lying to them about who they are.  They will FOREVER be frustrated attempting to put their square peg in a world of round holes.   That is a discussion for another day.

The scariest parts of this act are the loss of parent’s rights and the complete disregard of the medical community.  For a movement that claims to be so “scientific”, it seems odd and hypocritical that it would not let those trained in the sciences determine how they want to move forward with a patient.  More horrifying, however, is the effort to make the state’s mandates superior to a parent’s right to parent.

I am all for protecting children, but the reality is that they are not mature enough to make such life changing decisions.  They do not understand the repercussions.  Given the choice, children would watch hours upon hours of TV, eat only cookies and pizza, and never do any sort of school.  This is why God gave them parents, to protect them from themselves. 

You all, this is dangerous for the religious and non-religious alike.  Surely, you should have the basic freedom to parent your child and you should live in a country where you can go to a physician and trust that they can actually advise you of what is best for your child versus being forced to do something they do not agree with, which goes against biology, psychology, and the Bible.

I want everyone to look at their children right now and release them to this act, submitting to the fact that when they are 12 or 14 (and of course so wise because they are all of 12 or 14) they can go to the doctor and request LIFE ALTERING hormone therapy, even a double mastectomy and if your doctor doesn’t give it to them, the ACLU will sue on your child’s behalf.

Seriously?  No thank you. Sound the alarm my friends……