Sign Of The Times

From Chalcedon...

State of New Jersey Tries to Force Church to Host Lesbian “Civil Union” Celebration Lee Duigon

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
—1 Kings 19:18

Can “gay rights” and faithfulness to God’s Word peacefully coexist?

As the state of New Jersey tries to force a small, conservative church to allow lesbian “marriages” to be performed on its property, we suggest the answer must be “no.”...

...“We have flatly refused to do it,” OGCMA spokesman Rev. Scott Hoffman told Chalcedon, “and because we refused, the Civil Rights Division of the Attorney General’s office filed a complaint against us.”

In fact, he added, the division has since filed a second complaint on behalf of another pair of lesbians.

“They asked us, first, to attempt mediation,” Rev. Hoffman said. “but the mediation they wanted was for us to agree to do it—which we will not.”

Why, then, did the church file a lawsuit of its own?

“We didn’t want to be subject to being on the run, being on the defensive all the time,” Hoffman said.

Although it seems incredible that any federal court would rule that the church must violate its beliefs by performing “gay weddings” on its property, we asked Hoffman what the church would do if the court did rule against them.

“We would have to proceed through the regular process with the state,” he said. “We’d just be back to where we are now. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. But my opinion is, we probably wouldn’t allow this under any circumstances.”

Asked if he would rather see the church demolish its pavilion brick by brick, Hoffman laughed and said, “That’s an option! I can’t speak for the whole board [of the OGCMA], but personally I’d be in favor of it...”
Read the whole thing