US Capitol Building Washington, DC
We at Mission Network News never thought we would be contacting Voice of the Martyrs about issues facing the U.S., but that's exactly what we did. VOM's Todd Nettleton says the protections could include the homosexual agenda and lifestyle. "Those things could be identified as hate crimes, and Christians could come under government punishment for speaking out against that."
According to Nettleton, "This is a very slippery slope when you start trying to identify what people's feelings are and then punishing them for their feelings, rather than actually what they do."
Republicans oppose the bill and offered several amendments, "including, protecting other vulnerable groups like pregnant women, under-aged children, the military, unborn children, senior citizens. Every single Republican amendment that was proposed was voted down."
It was then forwarded on to the House on a party line vote.
Nettleton says reading Scripture could become an issue. "You could read the Scriptures and be accused of hate speech. The Gospel is a message that people have sinned and are in need of God. It is not a message of everything's fine -- "You do what you want to do, and I'll do what I want to do." It is a divisive message."
Christ told believers that people would hate Christians. Nettleton says, "We shouldn't be shocked by this, but obviously we do live in a democracy. We do live in a country where we can have a voice, and we need to be speaking out on behalf of freedom."
In the meantime, Christians around the world suffer every day at the hands of their government. Nettleton says, "We in a America and we as the body of Christ around the world need to prepare ourselves so that we will follow Christ whether our government supports us and protects us, or whether they work against us. Our first calling is to be like Jesus and to live for Him, and we need to do that no matter what the laws are or what the government says."
Pray that the bill fails in Congress.
