Project Description

2016/03

The Equality Agenda

When King John, under considerable duress, pressed his royal seal on to the Magna Carta (Great Charter) on 15 June 1215, he could not have predicted that this document would shape our ideas of individual rights and freedoms for hundreds of years to come.  Buried deep within its dense text was a genuinely visionary thought – “To no one deny, or delay, right or justice,” meaning everyone is equal before the law.

FOUNDATION FOR EQUALITY
What people tend to forget is that this document was set within a Christian framework, was advocated chiefly by the church (“at the advice of our reverend fathers”), and had distinct biblical roots: its main purpose to limit royal power so that the king was no longer the law, but was under the law, is merely an echo of the biblical teaching on this subject (Deuteronomy 17:14ff, Psalms 2, 93). Many also ignore the fact that the first (and last) freedom established by the Magna Carta was that of religious liberty:  “the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired.”  

It is both ironic and tragic that the 800th anniversary of this pivotal document sees its fundamental liberties under sustained attack – and witnesses its visionary concept of equality twisted through a full 180 degrees to become inequality. This modern false ‘equality’ has become the favourite battering ram of the liberal left in our society.  Or, in the revealing language of Gerry Adams, it is, “the Trojan horse of the entire Republican strategy.”  He made this statement at a public meeting in Enniskillen on 24 November 2014 when he identified the principal tool by which to subjugate Protestants:  “That’s what’s going to break them:  equality.”

LEGISLATION FOR A NEW EQUALITY
The Equality Act came into force in the United Kingdom on 1 October 2010, ostensibly to grant people legal protection from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. A proposal to introduce similar legislation in the United States of America has filled conservatives with deep concern.  Those who appreciate the most cherished symbol of their nation’s liberty – The Declaration of Independence – understand that it leans heavily for its defence of human rights on the Magna Carta and even more heavily on the biblical belief of creation:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” However, what is now being proposed for America – The Equality Act of 2015 – supported by companies like Apple, Nike, Google and Facebook, is not laying a foundation for equality, but for “repressive tolerance.”

In his book Takedown:  From Communists to Progressives, How the Left has Sabotaged Family and Marriage, Paul Kengor observes:  “I think we’re already seeing what’s next from the ‘LGBT’ and same-sex-marriage movement – that is, an aggressive and uncompromising push for forced acceptance, forced compliance, and forced acquiescence.  For these people, ‘tolerance’ doesn’t actually mean ‘tolerance,’ just as ‘diversity’ doesn’t actually mean ‘diversity.’  What they want is a very selective tolerance and very selective diversity, which, of course, isn’t actually real tolerance or real diversity.” Kengor further warns:  “They are going to coerce those who disagree with their movement and their agenda, and that will include an aggressive attempt to force religious believers into full compliance with their movement and their agenda.  For that, they will enlist the long arm of the state, and they will seek to do so with liberal politicians as their handmaidens. The force will take the form of fines, pickets, boycotts, demonisation, and, in some cases, incarceration.” Much of this is already being witnessed in the United Kingdom!

INTERVENTION BY OPPRESSIVE BODIES
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has intervened where Christian belief and homosexual rights have collided, cementing a habit of undermining religious belief.

In 2011 the EHRC intervened in court against a Christian couple, Owen and Eunice Johns, to prevent them fostering a child on the basis that their Christian views might “infect” the child.  

The EHRC also caused outrage in March 2011 by commissioning a report recommending that children, if necessary without parental consent, should be asked if they are homosexual from the age of 11, and that records should be kept of those unsure about or “questioning” their sexuality.

The EHRC funded a case in 2011 against devout Christian guesthouse owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who restricted double rooms in their guesthouse (also their home) to married couples only. They were sued by civil partners Martyn Hall and Stephen Preddy after they were refused a double room. The judge ruled against the Bulls and ordered them to pay compensation.

Ashers Bakery was taken to court by taxpayer-funded quango the ‘Equality Commission for Northern Ireland’ because it declined to produce a cake with the slogan, “Support Gay Marriage.”  The Belfast County Court ruled in May 2015 that the company had acted unlawfully.  This case is awaiting judgement in the Court of Appeal.

The modern ‘revolutionaries’ who speak of equality while promoting immorality and injustice fervently hope that no one will dare to ask the uncomfortable question:  “What exactly does ‘marriage equality’ mean?”  To answer is to expose the truth that “marriage equality” is simply the latest catchphrase to be thrown into the same-sex marriage debate – an attempt to reframe the conversation and ascribe a certain level of irrationality to those who oppose same-sex marriage.

REVOLUTION FOR A RETURN TO TRUE EQUALITY
In modern societies that are increasingly secular and ungodly, the marriage equality debate is eventually going to be won by the ‘gay rights’ movement.  But, whatever sin society seeks to annul, it cannot change the fact that followers of Christ are to align with, and submit to, His Word.  His Word unequivocally declares that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman for a lifetime (Genesis 2:24; 1 Corinthians 7:2-16; Ephesians 5:23-33), and that homosexuality is an unnatural sin (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; Jude 7).  Therefore, homosexual union is not marriage. It does not matter if government legislates a new definition of marriage, or if society is overwhelmingly in favour of same-sex marriage.  A homosexual union always has been, and always will be, a perversion of God’s creation.

The bearers of this modern battering ram are not going to drop the “equality” tag any time soon.  If we imagine that leftist equality has steered us into some terrible directions already, the truth is that worse scenarios are to come, including further charges in order to lower the age of consent and sanitize the gross sin of paedophilia.

However, in the midst of changing circumstances we cling to an unchanging promise:  “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19).  May God, by His mighty Spirit, arise again in our day to sweep away sin, stir our hearts, and save our society!  National repentance and revival remain our only hope.

Dr Ian Brown