Religious conscience and the First Amendment

Persecution of Christians is accelerating rapidly!

Religious freedom laws enacted in Indiana and Arkansas have fallen to the pressure of pro-sodomites who hated the legislation, and the original bills had to be rewritten. Even more conservative states, including Texas, have backed away from complete liberty of committed Christians wanting to keep their consciences clear by refusing to sin.

Living in America formerly provided a degree of freedom to follow one’s religious conscience. There was also a consensus of moral people who opposed such sins as sodomy, premarital sex and adultery. Today these moral offenses are glorified by the entertainment industry and educational establishments. Increasingly, public opinion comes down on the side of immorality and religious persecution.

If I worked in an establishment that sold to the public, I couldn’t sell a cake to celebrate an immoral sodomite “wedding.” I couldn’t do photography work for such a “wedding.” I couldn’t issue a marriage license to a sodomite couple.

But today, these convictions are labeled as wrong, hateful, even unlawful!

Let every Christian determine not to be pressured to sin against the Lord to please the immoral, politically correct public.

— Richard Hollerman,

Fort Worth

Whatever happened to “All men are created equal,” the Golden Rule and “Love thy neighbor”?

From what I read and see today, many consider all three to be antiquated. God’s commandment, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” seems to have many stipulations to it nowadays — stipulations that weren’t put there by God, but by humans.

Why are same-sex couples not viewed as equals? Why are non-Christians often viewed as heathens? And why are many people of color treated as lesser humans?

I know that there are “bad people” in all of those categories, just as there are “bad people” among white heterosexuals, so I’m not sticking my head in the sand.

My heterosexual marriage has not suffered one iota because of same-sex marriage, nor has my faith in God. It pleases me for two people to love each other, no matter their sexual preference, ethnicity and/or religion (or lack thereof).

With the United States a melting pot, it would behoove us to practice inclusion for the benefit of all.

— Judy B. Beeman, Weatherford

Legislation is being passed by more and more states giving their residents a right to discriminate, supposedly, against the LGBT communities.

It’s a very slippery slope toward denying rights to other minorities.

If one religion is giving the green light to discriminate against one minority, how long will it take for the Tea-liban to say, “Hey, it’s working against them, why not go for, say, the Jews? Or maybe Muslims or …”

Why are so many vicious people jumping on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act bandwagon? It is unconstitutional, it is immoral, it is not American.

Now is the time to fight those laws and bring back the equal rights we are afforded under the First Amendment.

— Beverly Margolis-Kurtin, Hurst

Gays have always had equal civil rights. They’ve voted or gone to restaurants with no obstacles.

Civil rights is not their problem. The problem is public acceptance of men who want sex with other men, of men who need to dress like women, of men who don’t like to be men and undergo surgery to become women.

Gays run huge, well-funded media campaigns trying to force us to accept this as normal.

There’s one problem with this brainwashing campaign. While only 2 percent of us are gay, many of us have gay relatives and acquaintances. We see the serious problems they have (and not from homophobia).

As for Indiana, if gays can’t get a wedding cake in one bakery, go to another bakery. That way everyone is accommodated and an owner’s constitutional rights aren’t violated.

— Curt Lampkin, Azle

This story was originally published April 10, 2015 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Religious conscience and the First Amendment."