Photo Credits: Flickr
In order to promote a person or political program, different groups use different tactics to praise or discredit certain politicians. During Barack Obama's time in office, conservative groups insisted that he would take away religious freedom in America. On the other hand, Trump's presidency and his policies have been linked to religion, precisely its white evangelical wing. Now, amidst the 2020 presidential race, conservatives are warning that Joe Biden has plans to "declare war" on religious freedom. Michael Brown, an anti-gay activist and author of books, is already claiming Biden will assault religion in an attempt to discredit him and his chances of winning the 2020 presidential race.
According to Patheos, Brown writes in an article for Charisma about the damage Biden will do with his plan to “Advance LGBTQ+ Equality in America and Around the World" which, if put into law, would mean the most aggressive, government-sanctioned attack on Christian values in our nation’s history. He is trying to present Biden's plan to promote LGBTQ+ equality and rights as something that is against religion; but in reality those two things don't have to be connected at all. If religion does not try to suppress LGBTQ+ rights, the fight for those rights would not be contrary to religion.
But Brown tries to present LGBTQ+ rights like something that is endangering religion and religious freedom. According to Black Christian News, he writes "Let's also remember that on January 25th of this year, Biden tweeted, ‘Let's be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights.’" Unfortunately, what this translates out to is a war on the rights of those who do not embrace radical transgender activism. And that means a war on those who hold to biblical ethics. A war on those who recognize only male and female sexes. A war on you and me."
As conservatives were wrong about Obama, who didn't take away religious freedom in United States, Brown is wrong now with his paranoid fear of Biden's plan about LGBTQ+ rights. It looks like Brown is forgetting that Biden is one of the more moderate, religious Democrats out there. It would be very hard to expect that he would somehow use the government to persecute his own faith.
Brown's warning sounds like something a conservative bigot would say. He uses deception, false information and harsh extreme phrases in order to trick people into believing that there is really some anti-religion war going on.
