Before you read the below, I want to emphasize I’m not here to debate the merits/morality of homosexuality.  However, I do want to raise the issue of redefining marriage and the threat to our religious liberties should it gain momentum.  I think a lot of us, myself included, didn’t realize the extent of what is at stake.

I sense we are facing a turning point in the efforts by some to redefine marriage.  While on the surface it’s tempting to adopt the mentality of “live and let live,” this is a dangerous approach to take because our religious liberties are ultimately at stake.  It’s easy to think that gay marriage activists are simply seeking the right to marry and nothing more.  However, the facts point to their ultimate goal – which is to indoctrinate society and our children that the redefinition of marriage is normal, natural, and acceptable and that opposition to redefining marriage and related religious beliefs are bigoted, discriminatory, and not worthy of tolerance or acceptance.  As someone who would like to have children in the near future, my number one purpose on this earth will be to raise them according to God’s teachings; however, if gay marriage activists have their way, the government will become an indoctrinating force to brainwash our children otherwise, forcing dissenters into silence by shutting them down and forcing them out of business.  This is what ultimately scares me.

States are often the laboratories where policies are tested before they are adopted on a nation-wide scale.  In this case, we can look at Massachusetts as the test case for what will happen should gay marriage become nation-wide.  In the five or so years since gay marriage became law there, Catholic Charities has been forced out of the adoption/foster care service because the government decided they discriminated against gay couples in the adoption process.  Elementary schools are adopting curriculum that includes books about gay parents so that children are indoctrinated early; older grade levels are learning about homosexual relationships as part of their health classes.  Parents are having to file law suits to try to get their children out of these classes or away from these books on moral grounds.  Even in states where gay marriage is not legal, this trend is unfolding – in New Jersey, a Methodist church lost its tax-free status because it refused to allow gay civil union ceremonies on its property.  These are just a few of the examples of what will happen if the government decides to redefine marriage.  Despite what the activists tell you, redefining marriage WILL have an impact on our personal and religious lives, including how we raise our children.

What is happening to our first amendment right to freedom of religion?  What is happening to our right to live by what God has taught us without government interference, particularly when it comes to raising children?  In the case of Catholic Charities in Massachusetts, why is our government shutting down our religious institutions at the expense of poor children who were benefiting from the Catholic Church’s benevolence?  We can’t expect the Church to compromise its values and beliefs at the whim of secular government political-correctness, nor should we compromise our values, roll over, and let the government impose something we don’t want as a society, especially at the expense of our religious freedoms.  And once the government gains the power to discriminate against religious organizations because they don’t fall in line with government definition of marriage, they will likely use this power to suppress religious institutions on other issues, like abortion, and who knows what else awaits down the road.

We’re heading to a new age in America where churches and religiously-affiliated institutions, schools, hospitals, universities, seminaries, etc., will be forced to comply with government-imposed standards on marriage, abortion, and any other immoral standards the government wishes to impose on society.  If they don’t, they will risk losing their tax-exempt status or even their ability to operate in the most needy areas of our society, such as finding homes for orphans, providing health care to the poor, or even operating parochial schools if they don’t adopt the version of morality the government imposes.  Who knows, the government could even go a step further and try to punish the Catholic Church for not allowing women to be priests.  Not to mention that parents are already losing the right to control what their children learn in elementary school about these controversial topics.

The consequences are limitless, and the slope is very slippery.