Defiance against the Creator in the U.S. Congress
On February 25, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives debated and then passed the so-called Equality Act, filed as H.R. 5. This bill, as designed by its drafters, would radically corrupt and alter every title of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is a bill that, if it becomes law, will ban making proper judgments concerning people who refuse to live in keeping with the proper and natural boundaries of the sexuality assigned to them at birth by their Creator. In other words, this bill completely redefines “sex” by imposing the “transgender” ideology upon the meaning of “sex” which presumes that “sex” as either male or female is a human construct. Thus, if it becomes law, by human legal construct there will no longer be two sexes—male and female—protected against discrimination but an open-ended set of “genders” depending on how individuals prefer to identify themselves. In fact, because of this bill’s redefinition of “sex” in all civil rights laws to include an individual’s preferred sexual orientation or “gender identity,” it will make it illegal not to acknowledge these completely fictional and wholly counter-natural categories that deny the reality of only two sexes, the way that the Creator made us, either as male or female. The bill will greatly expand the areas to which its discrimination protections will apply. If passed as law, it will impose the “transgender” ideology upon physicians, counselors, teachers, and even subvert parental authority. It would have a massive impact upon churches, upon Christian institutions, etc. This reality-denying bill would thoroughly corrupt life as we know it like no other bill passed in the U.S. Congress has ever done.
H.R. 5 passed in the House of Representatives, 224-206. Now it moves to the U.S. Senate where it requires 60 votes to bypass any filibuster and to be brought to a vote. This is not the first time this bill has been introduced or passed by the House of Representatives. In 2019, it passed in the House but died there. Now the situation is different, given the 50-50 split in the Senate and another notable factor. In June 2020, the Supreme Court arrived at an alarming decision in Bostock v. Clayton County by 6 to 3 (Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh dissenting). The deeply troubling Supreme Court decision guarantees protections against discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the basis of sex extend to discrimination against Americans who identify as lesbians, gays, and so-called transgenders. The reasoning of the court was that a male who might lose his employment because he has a male as his sexual partner faces discrimination on the basis of sex, which, if he were a female in a sexual relationship with a male, he would not face that discrimination.
A Proper Submission to the Creator’s Design for Humans in the U.S. Congress
So, keenly aware of how the so-called Equality Act will legalize the debauchery of the culture’s already moral decadence, on February 25, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida) rose on the U.S. House floor to voice his objection to the depravity that the bill would protect, behavior and practices otherwise universally condemned as immoral. Among many powerful arguments raised against the Equality Act, Rep. Steube committed an unpardonable sin in the U.S. House where the Democrats sprawl their controlling demands. Steube’s sin? He dared to resort to quoting a portion of the Holy Bible. He prefaced his reading from Deuteronomy 22:5 by saying, “Unlike most speeches you will hear on this floor today, I am going to start with the truth—“A woman must not wear men’s clothing nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” He proceeded to explain, “It’s not clothing or personal style that offends God, but rather the use of one’s appearance to act out or take on a sexual identity different from the one biologically assigned by God at birth.” When males and females cross-dress, what happens is that “they’re making a statement that God didn’t know what He was doing when he created them.” He added that, if the U.S. Congress supports H.R. 5 by passing this extreme bill, then the country will “go directly against what is laid out in Scripture.”
Clearly, Rep. Steube triggered Democrats. How dare anyone quote the Holy Bible on the U.S. House floor? One by one Democrats, such as Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) excoriated Rep. Steube for being transphobic and intolerant. When it was Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY) turn to speak, he did not hold back. He clambered to his feet to locate a microphone where he asserted defiantly and dogmatically, “Mr. Steube, what any religious tradition describes as God’s will is of no concern of this Congress.” Oops! Methinks Rep. Nadler protested too much. But first, did Rep. Steube misspeak?
Likely, Rep. Steube embarrassed many Christians with his bold quotation of Scripture and especially the portion he chose to read. Rep. Steube’s directness incites uneasiness for many Evangelicals who regard such sincerity not only off-putting but bordering on imposing Christianity where they deem it does not belong, raising the specter of a theonomist boogeyman. The objection is that any appeal to the Bible as the basis for opposing a bill in Congress, even as repugnant as the Equality Act, is an abuse of God’s Holy Word. Reasonably articulate folks who take this posture would prefer that any argument against the offensive bill should make appeals to natural laws that apply to all people everywhere without any particular reference to Christianity but especially to Holy Scripture.
Indeed, Rep. Steube could have and, I think, should have mounted his argument by appealing to what is manifestly obvious to every sentient human, namely the reality of nature. His principal appeal could have been to the “Laws of Nature” and to “Nature’s God,” which bound a Christian minister, John Witherspoon, and a Deist, Thomas Jefferson, together in a common cause as expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Indeed, a U.S. Representative should be able to argue that nature itself unequivocally teaches us that there are only two human sexes—male and female. One should be able to argue from nature itself that the Equality Act stands in direct contradiction to nature’s reality and to the distinguishing observations that even children can make concerning the two sexes. Even Rep. Jerry Nadler, whose reasoning has been warped for decades, knows that there are only two human sexes even as he deliberately aids and abets a falsehood by supporting the Equality Act.
The U.S. Congress Gives Lip Service to the God of the Christian Faith
Nevertheless, I urge caution against hastily criticizing Rep. Greg Steube for quoting the Holy Bible in the House of Representatives. Please keep in mind that both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives have chaplains who, however liberal or evangelical they may be, continue to this day to function within the Christian tradition. Thus, the reading of the Holy Bible and the offering of prayers expressed in the Christian tradition have been and remain a regular practice in the House of Representatives. So, on February 24, the day before Rep. Nadler rebuked the Representative from Florida by saying, “Mr. Steube, what any religious tradition describes as God’s will is of no concern of this Congress,” Presbyterian Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben, standing on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, concluded her daily prayer: “Then together, in faith, enable us to discern Your will to determine what really is good, pleasing, and appropriate for our country, for our community, and for our Congress.”
Opening Prayer
02/24/2021
Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben (M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary)
By Your mercies, O Lord, we present ourselves to You this day, bringing with us not just diverse attitudes and a range of passions, but deeply held opinions which we truly believe are offered in faith.
We reluctantly admit that it is our faith that confounds us, for as we dare to interpret Your will and attempt to live into Your intent, we find ourselves viscerally at odds with the very ones with whom You have caused us to serve.
Renew our minds, individually and collectively, that we would not be conformed to the divisive patterns of this world but transformed by Your grace. May we not think so highly of ourselves that we fail to be reasonable or use careful judgment. Remind us that as Members of this one body, we are called to live in peace, to be thankful, to admonish in love.
Then together, in faith, enable us to discern Your will to determine what really is good, pleasing, and appropriate for our country, for our community, and for our Congress.
We offer ourselves, our words and deeds, praying in Your most holy name. Amen.
Opening Prayer
02/25/2021
Chaplain Margaret Grun KibbenTest our hearts today, O God.
May the clashes we endure and the roadblocks we encounter serve like a crucible for silver, that in the midst of these ordeals, You would rid us of ugliness, wrongful attitudes, and hurtful ways.
In the heat of our arguments and in the intensity of our discussions, refine us as a furnace does gold.
Remove from us our long–held grievances and free us from our unseemly behaviors.
Purify our thoughts of corrosive intent. Then forge us, that we would be molded and shaped to Your will and useful to the common good.
Into Your hands, O God, we yield our spirits and in the strength of Your name, we offer our prayers. Amen.
As she prayed the day before, so as the House began its session for February 25, Chaplain Kibben prayed again, “Purify our thoughts of corrosive intent. Then forge us, that we would be molded and shaped to Your will and useful to the common good.” Thus, given her two prayers on two consecutive days, which are heavily punctuated with allusions to Holy Scripture and with phrasings that are characteristic of the Christian tradition, Rep. Stuebe was fully within the rights of the practice of the House of Representatives to cite Scripture as he voiced his strenuous objection against the Equality Act that was under debate.
Likewise, given Chaplain Kibben’s two successive prayers, which echo words of the Holy Bible and of the Christian faith, Rep. Nadler seriously erred when he rashly declared, “Mr. Steube, what any tradition describes as God’s will is no concern of this Congress.” Did not Chaplain Kibben pray for God to “enable us to discern Your will to determine what really is good, pleasing, and appropriate for our country”? Yes, she did. Rep. Nadler, it is not difficult to discern God’s will concerning human sexes and human sexuality. Is it? Rep. Steube could have made his point cogently without even appealing to the Holy Scriptures. Why? God has made it transparently plain to us. There are only two sexes, male and female. Rep. Nadler knows full well that there are only two sexes. He has known this since childhood just as all the other members of the U.S. Congress have known since they were little boys and girls. Hence, Rep. Nadler and all his Democrat colleagues know that their refusal to heed the opposition, as voiced by Rep. Steube and others, and their passing of their wicked bill, the Equality Act, is nothing short of a mighty endeavor to impose a completely anti-natural and fictional unreality upon the American people. Even more grievous, they are engaged in a defiant and wicked act of suppressing the truth that the Creator infused into his creation. The Democrats’ Equality Act, which candidate Joe Biden promised to pass within his first hundred days in the White House, is one gigantic defiant middle-finger raised against God who makes his will concerning human sexuality manifestly obvious in our bodies.
Of Lips and Hearts or of Words and Acts
Rep. Nadler is just one among hundreds of members of the U.S. Congress who, by their presence tacitly approve of the historic practice of holding daily prayers in Congress which follow the religious tradition of Christianity. Thus, Rep. Nadler and his fellow members of Congress approvingly participate in drawing near to the Lord God their lips but not with their hearts. Such hypocrites! Fitting are the words that Jesus spoke directly to the ruling authorities of his day, “You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
“These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.”
We are not to think that the prophet Isaiah prophesied only about those to whom Jesus said, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you.” Jesus’ use of Isaiah’s prophecy does not suggest that he did not prophesy against the Israelites of his own. Likewise, we can rightly say, “Rep. Nadler and all your political allies who voted for the Equality Act, Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites. You presume to have your chaplain invoke the Creator’s blessings upon the proceedings of Congress where you also defy God by proclaiming, ‘What any religious tradition describes as God’s will is of no concern of this Congress.’” So, Mr. Nadler and Congress, hear what Isaiah prophesied about you.
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Therefore, once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
“You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
“You know nothing”? (Isaiah 29:13-16).
Again, Concerning Lips and Hearts or Concerning Prayers and Beliefs
As I draw this to a conclusion, it is fitting that I press the message of this blog entry upon our own hearts. Representatives in Congress do not have exclusive possession of hypocrisy. Insincerity is evident in our churches also. How frequently do you mouth these words during worship services at church?
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Do you realize what you are petitioning God to do? Do you understand that you are requesting God to take dominion over our habitation in the same way that he has dominion over his own? So, when these words escape through your lips, do you really want God to establish his reign over every facet of our earthly dwelling? Do you pray that what God desires will not only be done gladly but fully accomplished among us earth-dwellers? More pointedly, do you want the Lord God to have dominion over the U.S. Congress by causing the members of Congress to inquire what God’s will is and by causing them to do his will, the making of laws that agree with God’s will? If this is not what you pray for, why not? This is what Jesus taught us to pray.
If you pray the Lord’s Prayer with the notion that sometime, perhaps in the remote future the Lord Jesus Christ will return to establish his dominion on this earth, you are not praying with proper understanding or belief. Yes, indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ will someday return to earth and establish his eternal abode with us, bringing to complete fulfillment Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14; Revelation 21:1-3). But keep in mind that Isaiah’s prophecy is also already realized in the advent of our Lord as the Evangelist Matthew tells us (Matthew 1:23). Likewise, the Apostle John speaks of the reality of Immanuel’s presence among us when he states, “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God dwells among us, and his love is brought to completeness among us” (1 John 4:12). John’s claim is significant. With the incarnation of the Word, God has taken up residence among us; the church is Christ’s body in the world.
Therefore, when we utter the words of the Lord’s Prayer we must do so mindfully, expectantly, believingly, with the anticipation that God will spread his dominion by way of his own church, through the proclamation of the gospel which is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes. Do you believe what you pray? Do you expect the Father to act on what his own Son taught us to pray? If so, then pray for God to frustrate and to curtail the immoral designs of evildoers in Congress and that our God would establish the reign of righteousness in the halls of Congress so that “justice will roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:24).