Long before I ever visited Texas for the first time I heard about “Texas pride”. And after moving here I came to love Houston. Those of you born and raised here love it no doubt. Houston is your city–you endure the heat and humidity, brave the hurricanes, and root for your teams even when they are terrible. You are not “fair-weather” fans. You stick to your guns and love your city through thick or thin. You have to admire people like that. But things have changed.
While Houston has always had its problems it has now reached an all time low! Even our love for the city shouldn’t prevent us from feeling the shame–on a number of counts, but we have now hit the bottom of the barrel! Here’s the news headline that is being talked about all across America–“Houston demands pastors turn over sermons“. And here is a brief quote describing what is happening:
“The city of Houston has issued subpoenas demanding a group of pastors turn over any sermons dealing with homosexuality, gender identity or Annise Parker, the city’s first openly lesbian mayor. And those ministers who fail to comply could be held in contempt of court.”
This has to be the saddest day in Houston’s history. If you don’t see the wrong in this and the danger of it, you are in bad shape. You are part of the problem. If we don’t stand up and speak out now we never will, at least not until it is too late. When I first read of this on Facebook I responded by saying, “I publicly dare her to attend our service and I will make sure she hears what the Bible says about her sin. I don’t normally target people with my messages, but I will make an exception in her case.” If that offends you, you need to be offended. I make no apology from proclaiming what the Word of God declares. This is America, you can take it or leave, you are free to believe as you please, but you are not free to force me to remain silent. When you try to hush Christians from denouncing your sins, you not only violate their first amendment rights, you intrude in area where you have no business— separation of church and state.
I would hope that the good citizens of Houston would stand against this nonsense, but I have my doubts. Any city that would elect a lesbian mayor in the first place isn’t likely to care much about the violation of our constitutional rights. But be ye warned, if they get by with this they won’t stop here. They will cram their perverted ideology down your throat and force you to conform to their warped way of thinking. Those in Nazi-Germany failed to see the danger and refused to speak out until it was too late. We all know how that ended. Will we let history repeat itself? Time will tell.
The line in the sand has been drawn–where will you stand? Regardless of what the majority does or what the courts demand, as Christians we must stand our ground, and let the chips fall where they may. I for one will not be bullied into submission. I refuse to be silenced by the threats of a godless government. I will take my stand with Joshua who, in a similar sinful time, said, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve ; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell : but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Josh. 24:15). Think about it!
