Apr 7, 2021 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
Neither the words equality or discrimination are found in the U. S. Constitution, nor inferred. Also, no new amendment to the Constitution has been added moving either from a state to a federal jurisdiction, which is the required path detailed in Article V for enlarging the powers of the federal government. State delegates formed the U.S. Constitution and they gave the federal government no power over human association. We naturally discriminate between philosophies, organizations, and people we wish to embrace, date or avoid; even whom or what we like. We call this freedom.
Now the Democratic Party wishes to impose upon the people restrictions over human associations without a new amendment to the Constitution. Under the misnamed Equality Act it wishes to enshrine “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination respecting race or sex in employment, housing, and public accommodations. What it does in practice is to “allow the government to impose a belief system about sexual decisions and sexual behaviors on the nation.” The Act is “basically government-sanctioned discrimination against religious people” (CBN News, October 2018). If government is empowered to manage human associations it manages everything.
More fully how would the misnamed Equality Act violate the Constitution? Remember the Founding Fathers created a system called federalism which recognized the principle of dual sovereignty between the states and the federal government, neither the master nor slave of the other—the states to have domestic dominance, the federal government foreign policy dominance. All power was divided in 1787 between these two governments. There exists no new powers to distribute.
The Constitution restricts the federal government, (the executive, legislative and judicial branches) to the enumerated clauses housed in Article I, Section 8. In this it was restricted to four areas of federal law, these were: to tax, to pay the debts, to provide for the general welfare and national defense. To restrict the federal government from enlarging its power, which is its natural tendency to do, the last two of the four grants of power, general welfare and national defense, each required an additional eight clauses giving greater restrictive clarity.
Neither equality or discrimination were named, or inferred, as a function of the federal government. The eight clauses of general welfare benefited citizens equally and at the same time. None made distinctions between types of people or human associations.
All powers not specifically listed, or added later to the Constitution by way of the Amendment process outlined in Article V, were left to the states. The states retain all power that they did not specifically give to the federal government. The federal government can only expand its power at the expense of the states by distorting or ignoring the existing list which is what it is attempting to do. This can only succeed when the people are ignorant of the Constitution or do not care. Proponents of the Equality Act include both.
Even with this clarification, states, fearing that the federal government might still attempt to grow at their expense, refused to ratify the Constitution without additional restrictions on it, hence the Bill of Rights. But none of these housed either equality or discrimination. The Bill of Rights ends with the clarity of Amendment 10: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
So neither equality nor discrimination are in the Constitution or Bill of Rights but the word equal (not the same as equality) is in the 14th Amendment. This was a Civil War amendment (1868) designed to ensure that the rights of ex-slaves were protected as the South was attempting to re-enslave them through legislation. It reads in part, “No state shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” One cannot pluck out this phrase and give it new meaning outside the context of its origin, — to protect freed men from slavery—which is precisely what the Democrat Party is doing with their Equality Act.
But there is another problem with the broad use of the phrase “equal protection of the laws” used out of context, This phrase applies only to that law already constitutional, and that, has to have a solid base in the listed powers of Article I, Section 8 or in a new amendment to the Constitution ratified by three-fourths of the states as required by Article V. Any other interpretation destroys the Constitution as designed.
A great irony of our time is that the misnamed Equality Act “creates grave inequalities between those who simply want to live according to their religious beliefs and the reigning culture of political correctness. In short, it threatens our most fundamental freedoms of speech, religious exercise, and privacy. The Equality Act upends two centuries of First Amendment law that restrains government from forcing Americans to speak messages or participate in events that violate their deeply held religious beliefs” (https://firstliberty.org/what-is-the-equality-act/).
The Equality Act has no origin in the Constitution, and thus is unconstitutional. If passed it would violate a large part of the First Amendment more especially the free exercise of religion, speech and press. A mere act or statute cannot nullify a constitutional amendment. It opens up a myriad of new laws on human association, also without constitutional base. Neither equality or discrimination can be defined and certainly not guaranteed without Orwellian governmental control. Perhaps that is their intention.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Mar 31, 2021 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
First they censored Alex Jones from his millions of followers for saying that socialism was coming to America and that censorship, coming with it, is opposite free speech and freedom, and I did not speak out—because I was not an Alex Jones fan.
Then they tore down statues of America’s earliest explorers: Father Junípero Serra and Christopher Columbus, and I did not speak out—because they were said to have treated the Indians badly, therefore they were racists. Then statues of President Andrew Jackson, an Indian hater, followed by Confederate Civil War generals: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson etc. and I did not speak out—because statues had no real meaning and they were said to be racist.
Then statues of the Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson, George Washington etc. and I did not speak out—because some had slaves and therefore were racists. Then statues of Abraham Lincoln were torn down, the greatest abolitionist in U.S. History and still I did not speak out—because, well because I was not bright enough to know that he was not a racist but the opposite.
Then they set on fire St John’s Episcopal Church across from the White House. An Antifa leader next threatened to take down statues of Jesus Christ and burn the Bible and I did not speak out because—well they were just non-violent activities and these socialist anarchists were just expressing themselves.
Then they turned on all law enforcement beginning with ICE protecting our borders. Then on the police in our big cities, even promising to destroy them through no funding movements, and I did not speak out—because they were racists—even when the police units and city councils were themselves predominantly black.
Then for months they looted and set fire to downtown businesses of many large American cities: Seattle, Minneapolis, Portland etc. and I did not speak out—because my Democrat Party and my Democrat news outlets said that it was just right-wing propaganda and I believed them.
Then church attendance was banned or limited because of COVID and I did not speak out—-because I was not a Christian, actually I did not speak out either when it was the beaches that were closed or limited. I just believed my Democrat Party leadership and my Democrat Party controlled news outlets when they told me to wear two masks and that it was good for me to lock myself up in my home for more than a year, and I was so naive.
Then the 2020 presidential elections happened with hundreds of whistle blowers willing to perjure themselves testifying under oath that they witnessed massive cheating by the Democrat Party. Moreover, military intelligence documented that China had electronically switched millions of Trump votes to Biden giving him the presidency and I did not speak out—because it was only the Republicans that said this and my media always told me the Republicans, especially the nearly 75 million who voted for Trump, were all liars, racists and white supremacists and I believed them.
Then they censored a president of the United States, Donald J. Trump and I did not speak out—because my media and party told me that he was a racist, sexist, xenophobic and a white supremacist and I still believed them.
Then they censored everything negative against Joe Biden and I said nothing—because I believed my party and their media that we needed to stop disinformation. If only one side can express itself then there is only disinformation.
Then they attacked the Constitution that would have prevented all the above from happening had we just followed it as written and I still said nothing—because my party and news sources said that it was a racist document founded by racist white men to protect racism, and I believed them. Now it is nearly destroyed and so is freedom and I am a slave to the state. All who did not submit are now in reeducation camps or have been removed for spreading disinformation.
I should have defended these attacks on liberty but didn’t. Where there is no other side, there is no one left to speak for me because I did not speak for them. Now oppression and tyranny rule because people like me were the most gullible in American History. I could have spoken out but chose to be complacent instead and now liberty and the Constitution suffer for my ignorance. EXCEPT___
THEN THEY CAME FOR ME because I was white. They said all whites were systemically racist and whites needed to be reeducated and self condemning for what they had done to America. NOW I SPEAK UP—because it is a lie!!! I never offended anyone of a different race. Then my eyes were opened and I noticed that those saying and doing these horrifying things to America were also largely white and used mostly fabricated racism as a tool to make the least racist country on earth a socialist country. NOW I WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH ALONG SIDE MY BLACK, BROWN, RED, AND YELLOW BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION THAT GIVES ALL UNIVERSAL FREEDOM. I will no longer be a useful idiot for the socialist left.
(An American version of Paster Martin Niemoller’s “First They Came for the Socialists.” Niemoller believed his German neighbors, had been complicit through their silence in the Nazi imprisonment, persecution, and murder of millions of fellow countrymen. Dr. Pease believes the same is happening in America.)
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Mar 24, 2021 | Economy, Liberty Articles, Taxes
By Harold Pease Ph.D.
On March 15, 2021, Joe Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act . Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted in favor of this legislation, as only 9% of which had anything to do with the Wuhan China Virus. This in light of the fact that a trillion dollars was not yet spent from the money previously allotted for COVID relief.
Prior to this the first spending package for the virus was last year March 27, 2020, when Congress added $2.5 trillion to the national debt with the The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) giving most adults $1,200. Most were jubilant to receive a stimulus check but to pay this single stimulus back today would cost each taxpayer $18,863 since about 50% of adults pay no income taxes (Compare U.S. Debt Clocks Nov. 2019 with April 2020). I would rather not have the $1200 stimulus if it costs me $18,863 later.
On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed a second Stimulus Bill of $900 billion giving most adults another stimulus of $600. We have not assessed what the payback for this particular stimulus will be.
These three stimulus packages ($2.5T, $900 B, $1.9T) added increased the national debt by $5.3 trillion in less than one year. This total is more than the combined cost of World War I, $334 billion, and World War II, $4.1 trillion “adjusted for inflation to today’s dollars” (“The Cost of U.S. Wars Then and Now,”Military History, by Norwich University, October 20, 2020). Such debt is a recipe for bankrupting America and those doing it must know this.
So what is a trillion dollars? To begin with a trillion is the number one followed by twelve zeros. A trillion dollars is a thousand billion and a billion is a thousand million. One mathematician gave us a very practical way of evaluating our outstanding debt. One trillion one-dollar bills stacked atop each other (not end to end but flat) would reach nearly 68,000 miles into space—a third of the way to the moon (See CNN News Cast, Feb. 4, 2009). If so, the debt thus far incurred by the coronavirus alone, $5.3 trillion, would reach to the moon and two-thirds back to earth.
Senator Mitch McConnell gave another illustration just as awe striking. He calculated that if we spent a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, we still would not have spent a trillion dollars—only three-fourths of a trillion dollars (Ibid).
Who will pay these three coronavirus loans? Since we never liquidate our debt—only increase and pass it on to posterity—our grandchildren yet unborn, will be saddled with this debt plus the interest on it. How can I prophesy with such certainty? The United States has not been free of debt since Warren G. Harding 100 years ago (US Debt by President by Dollar and Percentage Who Increased the U.S. Debt the Most? Depends on How You Measure It. By Kimberly Amadeo, Updated November 04, 2019)?
Yes the coronavirus is a massive rogue wave that has sunk thousands of businesses in its path but following closely behind it is a tsunami many times larger—the national debt—that is and will bring down this country because our children cannot pay it either. Our national debt has soared to $28.09 trillion (USDebtClock.org). This debt in one dollar bills laid flat atop each other, not just the COVID portion as mentioned, will now go to the moon and back almost five times. We are drowning in debt.
I ask students, “Who gets to go without so that this debt can be paid?” “Go without!!!?” That is a concept foreign to this generation!! They do not know, and neither do their parents and grandparents who laid it on their backs. When they are told that their share to liquidate this debt is not just $37,726 for the coronavirus bailouts, but $224,456 per taxpayer—due immediately, they get angry (see USDebtClock.org). “Someone should have told me that government handouts are not free.”
The 13th Amendment ending slavery has been rescinded, they are America’s new slaves. Bondage was given them before their birth, or while they were in the womb, or before they were old enough to know what it meant to be sold into slavery. The past and present generations wanted nice costly programs for free and were willing to sell their children to have them. Worse, the older generation is still anxious to incur even more debt on our defenseless children and grandchildren. Are we not the most debt addicted, insensitive generation in U.S. History?
Yes these are hard times and in such adding to a national debt is said to be justified. What isn’t justified is that in prosperous times, of which most of the last 70 years have been, we should, and could have, liquidated that debt. Then a $5.3 trillion debt to handle a virus could have been repaid in the next prosperous time or perhaps by the children, but not now. We have squandered our wealth in foreign endless wars, foreign aid and domestic welfare.
Both parties are responsible for this debt. I had hoped with the robust Trump economy (the best in several decades) that we could start paying off the debt but now chances of removing, even the coronavirus portion of the national debt enslaving us, is slim. Biden proposes $3 trillion for infrastructure updating. Trillions more debt Democrats plan for reparations for descendants of slaves, the green new deal, and free college for everyone. It is hard to believe that the Democrats are not purposely pushing us over a cliff destroying the once wealthiest nation in world history.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Mar 17, 2021 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease Ph.D.
On the heels of the Equality Act which opens the door for religious persecution and damages the right of assembly and speech, the Democrats with H.R.1, also misnamed, Bill For the People Act of 2021, seeks to cement corrupt election practices indefinitely. Also, like the Equality Act, it had already passed the House with a solid 220 Democrats over unanimous Republican opposition of 210, before most Americans were aware of it because of the party’s overwhelming control of the press and full-court press censorship practices of anything negative to Joe Biden.
Contrary to its title the nearly 800-page, “Bill For the People,” would remove authority over elections from the people. It constitutes a federal takeover of all elections. It incorporates and legalizes every objectionable practice in the election of 2020. It installs controlled elections.
Under the Constitution all elections, including federal, are governed at the state level under the philosophy never elevate to a higher level that which can be resolved at a lesser level. The Founding Fathers placed the responsibility for all elections with the body closest to the people, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senator and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the Legislature thereof” (Article 1, Section 4,). Corruption is isolated and the people themselves, most affected by it, are most likely to correct it.
It undermines the Elections Clause cited above which bestows principle authority to the states and the Electors Clause of Article II exclusive authority in presidential elections. “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress” (Article II, Section 2, Clause 3) Indeed, it could destroy the Electoral College.
The state legislature constitutionally creates all law governing elections and holds all jurisdiction concerning the same. Removing them would require an amendment to the Constitution mandating a 3/4th vote of the states rather than a mere bill of Congress passed by the majority of a single party. Thus they hold authority over all voting issues. The Democrats want that power.
Again, all election law is the prerogative of the state legislatures alone excepting what presently exists in the Constitution or that which has gone through the amending process, as outlined in Article V, and thus reassigned to the federal government. These include Amendments: 12—election of the president, 15—universal suffrage not race based, 17—direct election of senators, 19—women’s suffrage, 24—poll tax for voting prohibited, and 26—voting at age eighteen.
The “For the People Act of 2021” dumps state authority over elections, thus moving it further FROM THE PEOPLE, handing it over to the federal government instead. It would mandate the following: mail-in ballots, a 10 day delay in election results, eliminate voter ID election security, register millions of criminally present foreign citizen voters, explode opportunities for election fraud, prevent cleaning up voter rolls, unleash mobs on political donors, gerrymander districts in favor of Democrats, make vote hacking easier, allow former felons voting before they complete their sentences, help those aged 16 and 17 vote illegally, ban keeping the records necessary for an election audit or recount, mandate ballot drop boxes, and work to extend to U.S. territories extra Democrat seats in congress (“15 Insane Things in Democrats’ H.R. 1 Bill to Corrupt Elections Forever,” by Joy Pullmann, March 8, 2021).
Such also violates Amendment 14, Section 2, which gives states exclusive constitutional authority to decide when felons may vote again. Again, a mere statute cannot override an Amendment to the Constitution.
It unconstitutionally replaces state authority with unelected commissions. The present independence of state judges assessing election controversies now would be under the authority of a new unelected “Commission to Protect Democratic Institutions” from Washington D.C.
If passed this is the largest overhaul of U.S. election law in at least a generation, perhaps since women’s suffrage, totally unconstitutional without an amendment. With virtually no bipartisanship in Congress, Democrats are quite happy with how they “elected” Joe Biden in 2020. The vote in the Senate is predictably 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaker.
Still, Senate rules require a 60 vote margin of victory and that will not happen honestly. This they admit, “If Mitch McConnell is not willing to provide 10 Republicans to support this landmark reform, I think Democrats are going to step back and reevaluate the situation,” Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), the author of HR 1, told Vox in a recent interview. “There’s all manner of ways you could redesign the filibuster so [the bill] would have a path forward” (“The bill still faces a steep climb in the US Senate,” Vox by Ella Nilsenella, March 3, 2021).
With the passage of H.R.1 everything previously illegal in an election is now made legal. Simply put, “The bill interferes with the ability of states and their citizens to determine qualifications for voters, to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls [and] to secure the integrity of elections” (The Facts About H.R. 1—the For the People Act of 2019, The Heritage Foundation February 1, 2019). Look to permanent one party rule and the end of free elections and the Constitution as we know it, if this bill, removing governance of elections further from the people, goes through.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, ple ase visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Mar 10, 2021 | Constitution, Liberty Articles
By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
Vice President Mike Pence, the second most important Republican, was noticeably absent from the conservative confab CPAC a couple of weeks ago. Why? He has no place to go. Right now Pence is unlikely to ever serve elected office again. Normally the Vice President of a popular president follows the exiting president to the highest office in the land. Not now!
Pence served honorably as Trump’s Vice President and played a major role in the development of, what should be called, the Trump Vaccine. Unlike Senators Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, each more Democrat than Republican, he was totally conservative, loyal, and religious. But sadly he missed his moment in time and self destructed in minutes because of his ignorance of the Constitution he swore to uphold.
But he was not alone. The Constitution was betrayed by both political parties due to ignorance, defiance of the document, or fear. On January 6 two Constitutional processes remained, either would have easily solved the election question between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, one involving the President of the Senate, Mike Pence, the other involving the House of Representatives.
In the first the Constitution reads, “The President of the Senate [Vice President Pence] shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted” (Amendment 12). All Pence had to do when a state submitted two slates was to say. “Arizona (et al.) has submitted two slates one from its state legislature, the other forwarded by the state secretary of state signed by the governor. Since only the state legislature is recognized by the Constitution as the proper submitter, and I can not count both, I will count only it.” Since five of the six contested state legislatures were Republican the issue evaporates.
Or, he might have said instead. “Since I can only count one slate and two have been submitted, I will give Arizona (et al.) 48 hours to resubmit directly to me a new slate of the state legislature only signatures; the candidate with a majority of these signatures will be counted. If this is not received in the time allotted, I will not be able to count any electoral college votes for Arizona in the 2020 presidential election.”
Instead, Pence chose to follow a procedure not at all in the Constitution termed the objection process. This required a member of the Senate and a member of the House each objecting, then dismissing the two houses to their separate quarters for two hours of discussion rendering a decision before reuniting. A process fraught with potential problems.
The objection process was contrived in the Equity Act of 1887, ten years after the fraudulent presidential election between Samual Tilden and Arthur B. Hayes in 1877, but the law had never been tested in a serious election as a procedure to replace the Constitution nor added to it as an amendment to the Constitution requiring 3/4th of the approval of the states as had been required in adjusting election procedure in Amendment 12.
Sadly the second and last Constitutional procedure in resolving a presidential election was defied by both political parties and the media, so ignorant or contemptuous of the Constitution were they. If Pence was unable to follow his constitutional procedure as President of the Senate as outlined above, he should have simply stated his inability to count two vote slates from the same state and turn it over to the House of Representatives as constitutionally required.
The Constitution reads. “if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers …the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; … and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice” (Amendment 12, U.S. Constitution).
In the House each state has only one vote for president, regardless of its size, California and Wyoming each have but one vote. Republicans controlled 28 state delegations, two more than the majority needed to win. Republicans blew this advantage entirely, Pence in particular.
Worse yet, Pence and the constitutionally ignorant Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi essentially deleted this section of the Constitution by choosing instead a procedure not in the Constitution nor therein implied, termed the objection process. Why is this so dangerous? Past practice, once done, is the “go to” position, to maximize authority not actually in the Constitution and is the favored option for those wishing to destroy it.
Either of the two constitutional procedures remaining January 6, president of the senate or the House delegation, would have resulted in a Trump victory, hence Democrats had no interest in following the Constitution. Unfortunately Pence was too ignorant of the document or afraid to stand with it, instead he damaged the Constitution by legitimizing a procedure not in the Constitution over one, the House process, that was. One can understand why Democrats do not follow the Constitution, all gave Trump victory, but there is no excuse for the Republicans. All the Democrat’s had for a win was ballot manipulation and electronic vote switching from China.
So Pence has no place to go and could not feel good having failed the Constitution but his accomplice Mitch McConnell should not hold future elected office either. Biden holds office because of their constitutional ineptitude.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, ple ase visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
Mar 3, 2021 | Constitution, Liberty Articles, Take Action
Harold Pease, Ph. D.
No act of Congress would affect negatively more Americans than the House of Representative’s recently passed Equality Act, 224 D-206 R, now slated for the U.S. Senate, then the President for his signature. Billed to ban discrimination against “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” it, instead, enshrines it into the 1964 Civil Rights Act potentially protecting pedophilia and pederasty under “sexual orientation.” Nothing in it is constitutuonal.
This is the same bill passed by the Democrat controlled House 20 months ago but dropped because it would never pass the then Republican controlled Senate and had no chance of a signature by President Trump. All this has changed with controversial elections allowing a Democrat Senate and Biden, a strong supporter, in the White House. Sixty votes must be found in the Senate to bypass a filibuster. Democrats are expected to cheat by ignoring this requirement forcing the bill though with a simple majority.
The 13-paged ambiguous Equality Act “would give homosexuality, transgenderism, and other perversions of human sexuality and gender the same protections as race or sex in employment, housing, public accommodations, and more.” It specifically prohibits religious freedom as a defense. “The legislation applies to churches, religious schools, religious hospitals, religious employers, gathering places, sports, all government entities, and more. Christian adoption agencies will be shut down, too, if they refuse to place children with homosexuals or individuals confused about whether they are men or women. That has already happened in states with similar legislation.”
It could criminalize Christianity, Judaism and Islam as their holy writ condemns as sin the behaviors of the LGBTQ community. As federal law “churches, synagogues, and mosques will no longer be able to uphold marriage between men and women, or any moral standards on sexuality at all. Counselors of faith will be banned from helping people with unwanted same-sex attractions or gender confusion. And Christians, Muslims, and Jews will no longer be allowed to seek out counselors to help them deal with those issues. Indeed, under the measure, everyone will have to affirm the LGBTQ agenda, or face persecution and destruction at the hands of the federal government. Churches will lose their tax-exempt status if they do not submit. Schools will lose their accreditation…and this is just the start” (“Equality Act Would Unleash Federal Persecution of Christians,” By Alex Newman, New American, May 8, 2019).
The Equality Act is anti- women, The unchurched may say, “This is not my fight.” But it affects them too with respect to abortion, bathroom privacy, and women’s sports! “By amending the definition of ‘sex’ in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this legislation codifies a fundamental right to an abortion up until the moment of birth.” Seconds short of infanticide. By effectively eliminating Hyde protections, it ensures that American taxpayers foot the bill for abortions (“Democrats’ passage of ‘Equality Act’ is the first stage in their attempts to CRIMINALIZE Christianity,” by Randolph Jason, May 24, 2019).
It vastly undermines women’s privacy. “Men who claim they ‘identify’ as women will be allowed to use women’s restrooms, showers, changing areas, and even bunk with women on trips, including church trips,” any man “could simply walk into female facilities under this bill and claim to be a ‘transgender’ who identifies as female,” placing girls and women at risk. “It would even be forced on churches, domestic-abuse shelters, Christian schools, and much more” (“Equality Act”).
The Equality Act decimates high school female sports and the monumental gains in the sexual revolution of the seventies that equalized opportunity for women’s sports. Biological men with more weight, size and strength, claiming transgender status, can compete with women. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) “introduced an amendment at the last minute to the Equality Act that would have preserved Title IX’s protections for female sports teams, but Democrats — the ‘party of women’ — rejected it soundly.” Women’s sports will never be the same. Ironically the Democratic Party, has abandoned 52% of the population (women) in favor of the “less than one half of one percent of the population claiming transgender status” (“Why do Democrats think they have the authority — and the RIGHT — to regulate gender on high school sports teams?” The National Sentinel, June 3, 2019). On bathroom privacy and sports Democrats are anti-women.
The real fear for critics of the bill is that it “provides the state with the power to persecute anyone who won’t celebrate any aspect of the LGBTQ agenda…it turns any recognition of the differences between the sexes or any preference for traditional sexual morality into actionable ‘hate,’ creating fertile grounds for lawsuits.” It puts the LGBTQ community in direct collision with God as defined by Christianity, Judaism and Islam. These world religions recoil from the behaviors of this group. Behaviors, they believe, places them at odds with God and salvation itself. This legislation is equivalent to “pouring legal acid on a marriage-and-family-based culture.” For them this is war between good and evil.
Instead of equality it gives legal power to opponents of religion who will, according to Prof. Robert Gagnon of Houston Baptist University, an expert in biblical sexual morality, “codify into law that you are a bigot, the moral equivalent of a racist, tantamount to being a member of the Klu Klux Klan, who must be shut out of society and, wherever possible, harassed and persecuted for your beliefs.” Thus, the Equality Act “is the most dangerous bill to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion that has ever been proposed on a national level” (“A misnamed legal jackhammer strikes,” by Robert Knight, Washington Times, May 19, 2019). No wonder the vast majority of religious communities oppose it.
Ironically the best way to have the LGBTQ community treated fairly is housed in Christianity, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” But in today’s upside down world: right is wrong, slavery is freedom, evil is good, and now equality is inequality. Again, nothing in it is constitutuonal.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, ple ase visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
