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At one level this is encouraging to see. It’s a “feel good” thing for Bible believers. It feels like we have really “pushed back,” but we must understand that nothing of substance has changed.
Homosexual activists have demonstrated that they are not seeking “equal rights.” They are seeking to silence all publicly-stated opposition to their “lifestyle,” and they will not settle for anything less.
They are winning significant battles toward this objective and unless there is a massive spiritual revival in the churches, they will eventually win the war (in this present place and time, though certainly not in eternity). A genuine, deep-seated, far-reaching revival is the only hope, since the fundamental cause of the nation’s moral pollution is apostasy, worldliness, and spiritual compromise in the churches.
Homosexual activists don’t care if there are multitudes who still believe in traditional marriage. They don’t care if the lines to Chick-fil-A drive-up windows run around the block. The great show of support for Chick-fil-A didn’t cow them one bit and didn’t slow down their agenda one iota.
All they need to do, first, is to win the battle in the court of public opinion, and they are winning this battle at breathtaking speed, with the help of their friends in the news and entertainment and educational industries, and in the throne-room of billion-dollar corporations. They have framed “homosexual rights” in strict human rights terms, and they are convincing large numbers of people that “discrimination” is hateful and that any opposition to homosexuality is mean-spirited. All they have to do is wait, because the polls demonstrate that each new American generation is more supportive of their cause than the previous, and by the time the Baby Boomers are tottering on their canes, which is just around the corner, support for homosexual “marriage” and LBGT rights will form an overwhelming majority.
Second, all they have to do is win the battle in the courts, and they are winning this, too, at breathtaking speed, since the courts have been committed to humanistic judicial activism for a long time. We have documented this in the report “What Will Be Illegal When Homosexuality Is Legal?”
Consider that a homosexual activist group in Chicago filed multiple human rights complaints against Chick-fil-A with the Illinois Department of Human Rights on August 2, just days after the great show of support. The organization, which calls itself The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA), charges that Chick-fil-A operates an “intolerant corporate culture, which violates Illinois’ Human Rights Act” (“The Civil Rights Agenda Files Complaints,” Chicago Phoenix, Aug. 2, 2012). Jacob Meister, head of TCRA, claims that Chick-fil-A has “made it clear the lives of LGBT individuals are unacceptable to them and that same-gender families are unwelcome at Chick-fil-A.” He claims that the comments by Chick-fil-A’s president, Dan Cathy, in support of traditional marriage and against homosexual “marriage,” has made LGBT people feel “unwelcome” at Chick-fil-A restaurants, which are “public accommodations” under the Illinois Human Rights Act.
The TRCA is representing a homosexual “same-gender family with a daughter,” who, as a result of Cathy’s statements, feels “looked down upon, loathed, unwelcome, objectionable and unacceptable to Chick-fil-A.”
I don’t know what will come of this particular case, but in light of current human rights thinking, the homosexual activists might have a real case even now. And if not now, sooner or later homosexual rights campaigners will probably find sympathetic judges to take their side against the hated Christians.
In a way, the homosexual activists have already won this particular battle with Chick-fil-A. They aim to shut down all public statements against their lifestyle, and it is already evident that Mr. Cathy has said his final word on this matter publicly, and a lot of businessmen have also learned a lesson from the way Chick-fil-A has been treated. In fact, as soon as the brouhaha started, the $4 billion company quickly actually issued a statement saying it would “leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.” So it’s back to selling chicken sandwiches come what may.
Prayer could make a real difference in the situation today. The average Bible believer probably does not even pray for America (or Canada or Australia or England or Fiji or India or wherever) once a year, let alone regularly. Think about it, Christian friend. Do you even have a daily prayer closet where you intercede against the enemy? We are specifically exhorted to pray for “all that are in authority” (1 Timothy 2:1-2). The reason we are taught to pray in this way is that “we might lead a quiet life in all godliness and honesty” and that souls might be saved. See 1 Timothy 2:1-5.
The average Bible-believing church’s “prayer meetings” are a sad affair, nearly a joke. Churches used to have real prayer meetings in the mid-week, but though they still have something that is called “prayer meetings,” there is very little praying going on. One of the Baptist churches in the South that supported Chick-fil-A day cancelled its Wednesday night “prayer service” so that the people could go to the chicken restaurant. What a foolish thing! Filling our bellies with chicken sandwiches won’t drive back the forces of darkness, but fasting and prayer will.
If every Bible believer and every Bible-believing church that reads this would determine to fast and pray one day a week for America, it would make a difference. It might not stop the downward spiral, but it could definitely slow it down. In fact, who knows what would happen if we really got the Almighty’s “attention”!
“Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21).
“But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:17-18).
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