Last week I wrote about the incoherence of the tired “how does my gay marriage affect you?” deflection used to perfection by the LGBT political lobby in their pursuit of early legislative success.  It served its purpose to falsely convince unthinking people that gay marriage was simply about equality and hospital visitation of loved ones rather than a stepping stone to the eventual criminalization of Christian ethics. 

Once the policy objective was achieved, the answer to that question became so easily depicted that the movement has largely abandoned it.  How can they not?  After all, if you want to know how gay marriage affects people of faith, there are stories every day.  Like this one:

David Roark, communications director for The Village Church, a Texas megachurch, was uninvited from the Circles Conference, a three-day event for graphics and user experience designers, because of his religious views. The conference is from Sept. 18-20.

The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) refused to partner with Circles Conference if Roark was on the roster. The group said the church has “openly discriminatory policies and practices towards women and the LGBTQ+ community” and therefore did not meet its standards of inclusion.

It’s actually a pretty sad commentary on the state of public rationality that no one bats an eye at such flagrant inconsistency anymore.  We just expect it and accept it.  The AIGA says that Christian beliefs don’t meet their “standards of inclusion,” so they demand that Christians be…wait for it…excluded.   

Bible-believers are deemed to be intolerant of sexually immoral behavior, so those who support sexually immoral behavior will prove their “tolerance” by being outwardly intolerant of Christians?  

But notice this all-important, and too-often overlooked detail.  The Christian in this instance, David Roark, was not objecting to participation in an event that featured LGBT-affirming individuals and organizations.  Roark had no problem participating in an event with pro-gay people and organizations, even if he disagreed with them.  He was not exercising intolerance at all.  It was the LGBT organization that couldn’t stand even the presence of an openly Christian individual at the event. 

Tell me again, who are the bigots? 

As frustrating as this may be for Christians and all those who operate with even a modicum of common sense, remember that this is nothing new for God’s people.  Timothy Keller said it perfectly recently:

Roman Empire: ‘You Christians are too exclusive. You threaten the social order because you won’t honor all deities.’

Modern West: ‘You Christians are too exclusive. You threaten the social order because you won’t honor all identities.’

This is par for the course, Christians.  Maybe it’s new to us, but it’s not new for believers down through the ages.  It’s precisely what Jesus meant when He promised, “If you were of the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

If you doubt Jesus on that, give David Roark a call.