This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
All is not well in America, and it is not because of the irreligious. It is because more than half of religious Americans and their capitulating clergy have apostatized. According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of the religious now adhere to the "sexualcratic" stratagem, including supporting same-sex marriage. They have abandoned their moral standards and religious orthodoxies to advance appeasement policies corroborating their heretical loyalties.
The greatest apostasy in American history is so extensive it has cowered the faithful and convinced the sexualcrats they will only muster a halfhearted stand to secure their religious freedoms from those determined to diminish them. The accepted appeasement of the sexualcratic stratagem — an appeasement assuring apathy — seems to confirm their conviction.
Appeasement policies that voluntarily concede certain religious freedoms to satisfy sexualcratic demands, in an attempt to safeguard other religious freedoms, is eerily similar to a time in history when Neville Chamberlain uttered these now infamous words: "I believe it is peace for our time . . . Go home and get a nice quiet sleep." This is exactly what the sexualcratic stratagem seeks — for the faithful to retreat behind their sanctuary doors and compromise their religious freedoms in exchange for peace.
Winston Churchill warned from his political wilderness: "They [those supporting appeasement] should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup, which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of mortal health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time."
Eighteen months ago, at the Utah Capitol, an agreement between advocates of religious freedom and sexual rights was fashioned through legislation that became known as the "Utah Compromise." The media recorded for all time public officials standing shoulder to shoulder with sexual rights advocates, waving the signed legislation before a cheering crowd — a crowd that believed peace had indeed been achieved for our time. Many hoped the "Utah Compromise" would become the model of "fairness for all" throughout the nation.
To date, no other state has adopted the "Utah Compromise." Meanwhile, the sexualcrats are rapidly obtaining their objectives, abetted by confederate corporations and courts dismissing fairness for all. The sexualcratic stratagem's ultimate objective is legal and political dominion over religious freedoms standing in the way of its absolute sexual rule. While dissension is distressing, appeasing sexualcratic dominion over God-given religious freedom is diabolical.
Fairness for all should seek appropriate ways to accommodate personal identity, but it should never violate the religious conscience of those providing goods and services in the form of artistic speech. For example, no one should be forced to bake a cake for a gay marriage celebration, or a cake for a white supremacists rally, or a cake inscribed with the words, "Mormonism: The One and Only True Faith." Forcing individuals to act against their religious conscience and speech is nothing less than tyranny of the cultural consensus violating the freedoms of the faithful few.
Undoubtedly, taking a stand for religious freedom will elicit attacks upon the faithful as it already has throughout the nation. Nonetheless, history has proven those religions that tamely surrender to the tyranny of the cultural consensus fall, while those that steadfastly stand for their God-given moral standards and freedoms, even to the point of suffering persecution, rise. Surely, standing for religious freedom requires the courage to counter the cultural consensus no matter the consequences.
The tyranny is intensifying the gathering storm of cultural and political disruption. This disruption should be harnessed into a national congress for religious freedom organized to draft a declaration of religious rights designed to educate and mobilize Americans and guide appropriate advocacy. The congress should develop strategies to replace appeasement policies with precise, political purposes; conventional counsel with audacious advocacy; and permissive public relations with regional teams of tenacious media and political tacticians.
Lastly, the congress should establish affiliations with existing advocacy organizations and religious leaders in every state to protect religious freedoms — the nation's birthright forged by the blood of faith — compromised by appeasement policies for a cultural mess of pottage. If the faithful are serious about retaining their natural born religious rights, they must with "martial vigor . . . arise again and take [their] stand for freedom as in the olden time." To do less would be for this generation to forsake the very religious freedoms for which the founding generation sacrificed to make this nation exceptional.
Stuart C. Reid is a former U.S. Army chaplain, government relations manager for LDS Public Affairs, LDS bishop and Utah state senator.