by Bill Beckman
Pastors and Religious Leaders:
Below is a quote from a Canadian Human Rights Commission ruling explaining why Christian Horizons (CH), Ontario's largest community living service provider of care to some 1400 severely disabled individuals, was found guilty of discrimination.
Michael Gottheil, Human Rights Tribunal adjudicator, delivered the guilty verdict against Christian Horizons (CH). First Gottheil states, "Christian Horizons accepts all persons into its programs regardless of cultural background or religious belief."
What this means for Christian Horizons, writes Gottheil, is that because the charity provides for whoever is in need, and does not exclude non-Christians, CH cannot claim exemption from non-discrimination legislation. If only CH discriminated against non-Christians, and offered its services solely to Christians, then perhaps it would have a leg to stand on. If only Christian Horizons took care of a particular segment of Ontario's citizens, instead of the whole citizenry without exception, then perhaps they would be eligible for government funding. But as it is, Christian Horizons is just too non-discriminatory, too humanitarian, too loving…that is, too darn Christian to fall under Section 24(1)(a) exemption, "which permits certain organizations to restrict hiring or give preference in employment to persons identified by one of the proscribed grounds of discrimination." (in this case presumably based on religion).
As a result, on April 15, Michael Gottheil decided that Christian Horizons (CH) had discriminated against Connie Heintz (a former employee), and ordered CH to pay her $23,000, plus two years wages and benefits. The tribunal also ordered CH to bring its policies into compliance with the Ontario Human Rights Code, meaning that it must scrap its Lifestyle Morality Statement and comply with anti-discrimination employment legislation that forbids employers, whether Christian or not, from discriminating on the basis of "sexual orientation". And, finally, the tribunal ordered CH employees to undergo state indoctrination in the form of so-called "human rights training."
See the complete article at: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042807.html. A bit of research readily reveals similar violations of religious freedom are occurring in Britain and other European nations where politicians with views similar to the Democrats have been in charge of their governments for a number of years.
If either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton becomes President, similar violations of freedom of religion will begin spreading across the USA. Similar laws were recently created in California, passed into law by the Democrats in that state, but its still too early to see the impact. Right now the Democrats in Congress have bills under consideration that would produce the same result on a national scale.
Allowing Democrats to legislate morality has been a huge mistake. Democrats have no chance of solving our social problems when they want to deny Christians the chance to allow their religion to influence their lives. Democrats want to force doctors and hospitals to perform abortions, force pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill (already established in Illinois by Blagojevich executive order), mandate teachers to teach "comprehensive" sex education instead of abstinence (since they support Planned Parenthood's agenda for casual sex as long as it is "safe"), mandate that all adoption agencies allow homosexuals to adopt children, allow same sex "marriage", pay for virtually all abortions with government funds, etc.
Since all of these legislative actions establish immorality as the legal norm, the negative impact on the family and the resulting disordered upbringing of children will cause an explosion of the very social problems that the Democrats claim they will fix by throwiing more government money at them.
I would hope that as a minister you would be able to recognize when your own profession is under attack by the same people that have apparently had no problem receiving your vote in previous elections. If you are serious about getting more people to respond to their religion by coming to Sunday services and actually living as Christians in their community, it is time to admit to yourself that the Democratic Party has abandoned the principles that drew you to support them years ago.
The Democrats may have good intentions, but their approach of legislating immorality is and will continue to create hell on earth. I, for one, would like to prevent that from happening.
Sincerely,
Bill Beckman
