Tolerance Police Arrest Louie Giglio posted by John Sorensen on Jan 14, 2013

Aren’t you glad we’re such a “tolerant” nation? We’re so accepting that it’s just fine if you want to “marry your canary,” as Christian apologist Greg Koukl says.

But our relativistic everything-goes age does have one iron-clad rule: DO NOT apply biblical morality to social issues. Violate that rule and you are toast—as last week’s public shunning of evangelical pastor Louie Giglio shows.

Giglio had accepted an invitation to give the benediction at President Obama’s second inaugural, but withdrew after a mid-1990s sermon surfaced in which the Atlanta pastor opposed homosexual conduct. He told listeners in the sermon that homosexuality is “sin in the eyes of God, and it is sin in the word of God” and also issued a call to “lovingly but firmly respond to the aggressive agenda” of homosexual activists.

That went way over the line.

A spokeswoman for the Obama inaugural committee said, “We were not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection, and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this inaugural.”

Translated, dissent is not allowed and if you do, you will pay. Fifteen or so years ago Giglio uttered a view still shared by more than 40 percent of Americans. For that, he must be banished because biblically based opposition to homosexuality is not tolerated. Pope Benedict calls this the “dictatorship of relativism.” He warns that, “In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished” and says the West faces a “threat” that is “inimical to freedom.”

Dr. D. James Kennedy, the late founder of Evangelism Explosion, called modern tolerance the “last virtue of a depraved society.” Here’s what he said in the late 1990s—talk about relevant:

When you have an immoral society that has blatantly, proudly, violated all of the commandments of God, there is one last virtue they insist upon: tolerance for their immorality. They will not have you condemning what they have done as being wrong, and they have created a whole world construct in which it is not, and in which they are no longer the criminal or the villain or the evil person, but you are! And so they call evil good, and good evil . . . and believe me, that is just the beginning.

Just to show you how accurate Dr. Kennedy’s words are, a Washington Post editorial board member labeled Giglio “an unrepentant bigot.” It’s not enough to say Giglio is wrong. He’s also bad.

This is Satan’s lie at work. He has convinced our culture that the only thing that is intolerant is Christianity. If we do not arrest our slide down this slope of intolerance to Christianity, not only will we lose the right to speak moral truth but we will descend to the point where our freedom to speak gospel truth will be lost as well.

And if that happens, we’ll get the opportunity right here in America—where religious liberty has flowered as nowhere else—to declare, with love and conviction, that we must obey God rather than men.