"Equality Act" Passes the U.S. House

After many years of persistent labor, the supporters of the so-called Equality Act saw the bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, May 17. The margin was 236-173. If ever passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the President and approved by the Supreme Court, the Equality Act will singlehandedly overthrow the Constitution’s guarantee of liberty of religion and speech. Every Democrat approved the bill, proving themselves to be the party of homosexual rights vs. religious rights, but they were joined by eight Republicans, including one from Texas. More than 160 major businesses, with 8.5 million employees and a total revenue of $3.7 trillion, backed the measure, including Airbnb, Alaska Airlines, Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, Bank of America, Capitol One, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Corning, Cox, CVS, Dow, DuPont, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Food Lion, General Electric, General Mills, General Motors, Google, Hershey, Hewlett Packard, Hilton, IBM, IKEA, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, Kellogg, Levi Strauss, Marriott, MasterCard, Merck, MGM Resorts, Microsoft, Monsanto, Nike, Northrop Grumman, Office Depot, Pinterest, Procter & Gamble, Symantec, T-Mobile, Target, Twitter, Uber, Unilever, Visa, Wells Fargo, Whirlpool, Xerox, and Yelp. At present, the Equality Act does not have a chance of approval by the Republican-controlled Senate or the Trump administration, but that could change with one election cycle. This is a spiritual issue, and the battle must be fought with spiritual weapons (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:10-18). Since Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority in the 1970s, Bible-believing churches have been trying to fight spiritual battles with carnal weapons, and they have been losing ground to the enemy every decade. It is long past time for those who have access to the throne of grace to rise up and approach boldly through Christ and find grace to help in our nation’s time of need (Hebrews 4:16). The One who sits on that throne is the One who has said, “Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south” (Psalm 75:5-6). Jesus said, “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26). God has specifically and pointedly commanded His people to pray “for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” That entails praying against the Equality Act, which would destroy the peace we have so long enjoyed in the world’s premier Bastion of Liberty. It is holiness and prayer in God’s house that can make a real difference in Washington D.C.

​(Friday Church News Notes, May 24, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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