{"id":1296,"date":"2019-10-11T10:04:49","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T15:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2019-10-12T10:14:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T15:14:56","slug":"orourkes-tax-exempt-opposition-draws-response-latest-christian-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/11\/orourkes-tax-exempt-opposition-draws-response-latest-christian-news\/","title":{"rendered":"O’Rourke’s tax-exempt opposition draws response – Latest Christian News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is a nothing burger, folks.\u00a0 Beto O’Rourke is factually wrong.\u00a0 His statement violates the First Amendment.\u00a0 He will not succeed since so the Constitution itself is against him.<\/div>\n
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We at the LIGHT! draw a distinction between spirtual marriage and legal marriage.\u00a0 If we as the church at large could better see that distinction perhaps Beto wouldn’t have felt compelled to say what he did.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The US government can define legal marriage however they want.\u00a0 It’s like defining another corporate entity like a C-corp, S-corp, LLC, LLP, etc. (call it an M-corp).<\/div>\n
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However, only God can define spiritual marriage.\u00a0 That is what we hold and protect.<\/div>\n
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Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God’s what is God’s.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Legal marriage is given to the government<\/div>\n
Spiritual marriage is given to God.<\/div>\n
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by Tom Strode, posted Friday, October 11, 2019 (12 hours ago) <\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"Democratic presidential candidate Beto O\u2019Rourke\u2019s declaration churches should lose their tax-exempt status if they do not agree with same-sex marriage drew quick rebuttals from Southern Baptist leaders and others.<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES (BP) \u2014 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O\u2019Rourke\u2019s declaration churches should lose their tax-exempt status if they do not agree with same-sex marriage drew quick rebuttals from Southern Baptist leaders and others.<\/p>\n

If elected president, the former congressman from Texas said he would make such a policy a priority in response to a question during the Power of Our Pride Presidential Town Hall Thursday night (Oct. 10) in Los Angeles. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation sponsored the town hall, and CNN conducted and telecast the event. HRC is the world\u2019s largest civil rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.<\/p>\n

CNN host Don Lemon asked O\u2019Rourke during the town hall, \u201cDo you think religious institutions \u2014 like colleges, churches, charities \u2014 should they lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d O\u2019Rourke replied to a cheering audience. \u201cThere can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone, or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so as president, we are going to make that a priority, and we are going to stop those who are infringing upon the human rights of our fellow Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore called O\u2019Rourke\u2019s comments \u201calarming because they represent precisely what those on his side of these issues have said for years that\u00a0they are not seeking to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTax exemption for churches is not a \u2018reward,\u2019 but a recognition that the power to tax is the power to destroy,\u201d said Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in written comments for Baptist Press. \u201cAnd, indeed, with these comments Congressman O\u2019Rourke threatens to destroy every church, synagogue or other religious institution that does not adopt his viewpoint on sexual ethics over and against their own traditions and authoritative texts. That is not the American way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted, \u201cI believe this is where the entire left is headed. I have been saying for years this will someday happen. Will it be sooner than later?!\u201d<\/p>\n

In a written statement, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., described O\u2019Rourke\u2019s plan as \u201cextreme intolerance\u201d that is \u201cun-American.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole point of the First Amendment is that, no matter who you love and where you worship, everyone is created with dignity and we don\u2019t use government power to decide which religious beliefs are legitimate and which aren\u2019t,\u201d Sasse said. \u201cThis bigoted nonsense would target a lot of sincere Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Leaders from both political parties have a duty to flatly condemn this attack on very basic American freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AND Campaign \u2014 which promotes \u201credemptive justice [and] values-based policy\u201d \u2014 tweeted, \u201cThis would devastate churches, mosques & temples that house immigrants, feed the poor, educate children, visit the sick (&) love LGBTQ people even when they disagree with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Rourke\u2019s comments and the responses reflect the ongoing battle between religious liberty and sexual liberty being waged in the United States on several fronts.<\/p>\n

Nine Democrats appeared at the town hall, but Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey was the only other candidate to be asked about tax exemptions for institutions that disagree with gay marriage, according to news reports. He did not provide a direct answer, CNN reported.<\/p>\n

According to CNN, Booker said he believes \u201cfundamentally that discrimination is discrimination. And if you are using your position to try to discriminate [against] others, there must be consequences to that. And I will make sure to hold them accountable, using\u201d the Department of Justice or another investigatory body.<\/p>\n

SIGNED UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER?<\/b> Get Baptist Press in your email by subscribing to our daily newsletter at bpnews.net\/SubscribeBP<\/a>. <\/small><\/div>\n
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This content was originally published here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a nothing burger, folks.\u00a0 Beto O’Rourke is factually wrong.\u00a0 His statement violates the First Amendment.\u00a0 He will not succeed since so the Constitution itself is against him. We at the LIGHT! draw a distinction between spirtual marriage and legal marriage.\u00a0 If we as the church at large could better see that distinction perhaps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-kU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1296"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1296\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}