Georgia's Governor Nathan Deal Sides with the Sodomites

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) today, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has decided that the current religious liberty bill--which has already passed the Georgia Senate--before the Georgia legislature is an exercise in "discrimination."

In strong language that most any modern liberal would be proud of, Mr. Deal went to great lengths today to warn Georgia legislators away from the current version of Georgia's religious liberty bill. As modern liberals so often do (especially in debates over the moral issues) Mr. Deal made regular use of the word "discrimination." As the AJC notes,

In stark terms, the Republican said he would reject any measure that "allows discrimination in our state in order to protect people of faith," and urged religious conservatives not to feel threatened by the ruling. He also called on his fellow Republicans pushing for the measure to take a deep breath and "recognize that the world is changing around us."

 As I have noted many times, every position in the marriage debate requires a measure of "discrimination." In fact, American law is replete with acts that "discriminate." Do Mr. Deal and his fellow homosexual apologists have the same sympathies towards the polygamous, incestuous, or "throuples?" Is Mr. Deal willing to "discriminate" when it comes to their "right" to "marry?"

With his "the world is changing around us" nonsense, it sounds as if Mr. Deal has fallen prey to one of the supreme virtues of modern liberalism: "tolerance." Of course today’s "tolerance" is little more than a self-refuting system of thought that attempts to impose liberal values onto any culture unable or unwilling to recognize the fallacy. On "tolerance," G.K. Chesterton declared: "Tolerance is a virtue of a man without convictions." What better describes a modern liberal than "a man without convictions." It's sad to see Mr. Deal align himself with such nonsense. Some things Mr. Deal have been settled for all time.

Declaring that he's a Southern Baptist who took religion courses at Mercer University, Mr. Deal even resorted to using Scripture to make his case. He declared,

"What the New Testament teaches us is that Jesus reached out to those who were considered the outcasts, the ones that did not conform to the religious societies' view of the world … We do not have a belief in my way of looking at religion that says we have to discriminate against anybody. If you were to apply those standards to the teaching of Jesus, I don’t think they fit."

He later added:

"What that says is we have a belief in forgiveness and that we do not have to discriminate unduly against anyone on the basis of our own religious beliefs. We are not jeopardized, in my opinion, by those who believe differently from us. We are not, in my opinion, put in jeopardy by virtue of those who might hold different beliefs or who may not even agree with what our Supreme Court said the law of the land is on the issue of same-sex marriage. I do not feel threatened by the fact that people who might choose same-sex marriages pursue that route."

Liberals typically only quote Scripture when they think it might help them further their Big Government social agenda. It seems that, as he skimmed his way through the New Testament on his way to the Gospel of John and the account of the Samaritan woman at the well, Mr. Deal ignored Jesus' words on marriage and sexuality.

When heralding what Jesus had to say about forgiveness, Mr. Deal forgot to mention anything about sin and repentance. He would also do well to note what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us: "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law."

Of course, any redefinition of marriage is "unjust." We should not even have to debate the idea of "religious liberty" when it comes to the issue of marriage. And I refuse to tolerate the notion that we've lost the battle when it comes to marriage because "the world is changing around us." The laws of men are often based on the foolish "wisdom" of those who are politically powerful, or the most popular. However, good government should never allow for the laws of men to run contrary to the laws of God.

After our relationship with out Creator, the most important relationship in the universe is the relationship between a husband and his wife. And again, marriage is the oldest institution in the history of humanity--older than God's covenant with the nation of Israel, older than The Law, older than the church. Marriage is one of the earliest truths revealed by God. If ANYTHING is true, marriage as the union of one man and one woman is true. On this, there can NEVER be compromise.

Copyright 2016, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com