A bill awaiting passage in the U.S. Senate will redefine sex and require accommodation of divergent views of sexuality by institutions and individuals—likely including churches and Christians—if passed into law. The Equality Act promises tolerance and neutrality for gay and transgender people, but a Chicago law firm specializing in religious freedom cases says the proposed law is neither tolerant nor neutral—for Christians.
HR 5, called the Equality Act, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Feb. 25. The vote was 224-206, almost completely along party lines. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing March 17, and the Act could be brought to the floor for a vote at any time. Some wonder if that vote will come in June, the federally designated annual “LGBT Pride Month.”
If the controversial legislation becomes law, it will eliminate the legal distinctions between males and females, amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include LGBTQ peoples, and take away religious liberty protections provided by the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The Act could also bring expanded federal abortion funding, diminish protections for women, and negatively impact the hiring practices of Christian organizations.
Richard Baker of the Chicago law firm Mauck and Baker said HR 5 “calls for a vast broadening of the meaning of the term ‘public accommodation’ to include almost everywhere where people gather.” The Act could deny Christians and other people of faith the right to claim exemption under religious freedom if such a claim applies to a person protected by the Equality Act.
The Family Research Council says the law could have some troublesome practical outcomes, including:
>Women and girls would no longer have privacy in publicly accessible bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and even battered women’s shelters;
>Medical professionals could be ordered to perform abortions or procedures related to “gender transition” against their moral or medical opinions
>Religious employers could be forced to offer their employees insurance coverage for procedures related to “gender transition” and abortion; and
>Churches and houses of worship could be prohibited from requiring that some of their leaders and employees abide by their doctrines
about marriage and sexuality.
“Frankly, it’s impossible to guess all of this bill’s impacts until long after its passage, when the damage has already been done,” the attorney said.
Why should Christians be concerned about passage of the Equality Act in the Senate? Baker points to contemporary conservative Catholic ethicist George Weigel for an answer:
“To the Left, equality means freeing those oppressed from the bonds of an oppressive society. And in the end, this will require ‘political will’ or government cohesion. And here it is: the Equality Act is designed to bring the full weight of civil rights law down on any religious institution—Catholic, Protestant, Jewish—that believes itself bound by Genesis 1:27. Which means that you are criminalizing biblical faith…”
Many Baptists would agree.
Where this road leads
American culture has rapidly shifted from a society based on traditional Judeo-Christian values to a permissive, almost anything-goes society. Paraphrasing the Book of Judges, there is no truth except that of the individual. The most noticeable shift was the passage of same-sex marriage by the Illinois General Assembly in 2013, followed by the U.S. Supreme Court agreement in 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges.
Christians who haven’t publicly supported same-sex marriage have paid a stiff price. Two business owners are the lead examples. Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado has been sued multiple times by LGBTQ individuals demanding he “bake the cake” for their weddings, despite his objections as a Christian.
Southern Baptist Barronelle Stutzman was sued when she refused to make floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding. She lost her case in the Washington State Supreme Court but has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In Texas last month, Baylor University, formerly affiliated with Southern Baptists, announced it is considering a request for recognition by a gay student group.
And in the heartland, a man dressed as a woman delivered the sermon at a United Methodist Church in Bloomington. He is a candidate certified for ordination to ministry by his district, appearing as “Penny Cost,” his drag queen name.
Outside the U.S., the “equality” movement is having more direct effect on local churches, and on Christians individually.
Last month in Finland, Juhana Pohjola, Bishop Elect of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese, was charged with “incitement against a group of people” for the publication of a booklet 17 years earlier. The 2004 booklet espoused traditional Christian teachings on human sexuality. Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen faces six years in prison for speaking publicly about marriage, and citing the Bible and that same booklet.
And in the United Kingdom, a Church of England priest was fired as a private school chaplain and labeled a terrorist after telling concerned students they could hold different views from a schoolwide pro-gay advocacy plan.
Whether HR 5 would have the same effect on speech in the U.S. is unknown, but as to the “broader risk of coercing speech, the answer is yes,” said Gregory Baylor, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. “There’s no doubt that many applications of the Equality Act would violate the First Amendment.”
At the very least, it will have a chilling effect. “There’s a lot of ambiguity about whether current protections of religious employers would help a church if they were faced with a claim of sexual identity or gender discrimination under the Equality Act,” Baylor said.
He acknowledged the Act would “coerce uniformity of thought and speech on issues like marriage and sex and what it means to be male and female.” By doing so, it would regulate what happens in schools and workplaces including religious institutions which would have lost their protection under 1993’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
What churches can do
How can local congregations be prepared right now? Baylor said churches should be “particularly mindful and thoughtful of the employees” they hire. They should also be “mindful that everything they say and do” might be taken down or recorded. He advised if a church should encounter a situation where they think a dispute might occur, they should immediately contact their legal counsel.
Churches should ensure their constitution and bylaws are current. One good policy is to identify in your church constitution with over 47,000 sister Southern Baptist churches by affirming The Baptist Faith and Message (2000). Additionally, all in-house documents should match policies. If a church claims religious exemption in a lawsuit, their documents must back up their practices.
Finally, church leaders could be encouraged to see this time of gender confusion and debate over tolerance as ministry opportunity. The story was told recently of a deep-South church that planned to meet the rumored arrival of a transgender person with a request to leave. He had been attending as a man, but let his desire to attend dressed as a woman be known. The pastor wanted to know if a request to leave was legal.
In contrast, almost a decade ago, a Chicago Baptist church welcomed a transexual man in women’s clothing into the ladies Sunday school class. After a year attending, appearing and identifying as a woman, he showed up to Bible class in a man’s suit with a man’s haircut. He told the ladies his real name, and his plan to return home to his family, to live again as a man.
He had heard the truth.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is a ministry partner of IBSA, providing assistance to member churches on legal issues and reviewing church’s legal documents to assess strength if faced with religious freedom challenges. Visit ADFChurchAlliance.org/IBSA to learn more about their service to IBSA member churches and discount for Church Alliance membership.