Dear Editor,

Individuals and businesses who want to opt out of giving consent or providing services for same-sex "marriage" often base their refusal on several premises: religious freedom, freedom of speech or individual freedoms.Such claims, while valid, are doomed to fail, because the center of the debate is no longer in the realm of upholding civil liberties. Rather, it has touched upon the sensitive issue of morality and sin.Of course, liberals will deny this since they have skillfully framed religious liberty laws as "license to discriminate" legislation; and this is what's so alarming.This would be a major step in destroying the American consensus that is historically a Christian one with moral rules based on the Ten Commandments; the glue that kept society together.Liberals are making laws that compel Christians to agree with acts they consider sinful. As a consequence they will actually be establishing "command to sin" laws for the first time in American history.It is in this relativistic framework that liberals today have sought to consider all beliefs and opinions equal.This "Un-Godly" mentality left the doors open for the state to intervene and take measures contrary to the beliefs of others, especially in the field of sexual morality, as in abortion and "same-sex marriage" laws.The left is careful to avoid the mention of sin, because this works to reduce sin to a mere opinion among many and God to a vague belief.To win the cultural war we are fighting today Christians must affirm that sin is not an opinion. Sin is an act that not only offends God, but one that causes disorder in society.The reason why sin offends God is because it violates his universal moral law that applies to everyone. Saint Paul says this moral law is written on every heart (Romans 2:15).This God-given moral code is what maintains order in society. It is the foundation of all law, including the American Constitution.Through this natural moral law, everyone knows that lying, stealing and killing are wrong. They also know that no one can be forced to sin.That is what makes our present phase of the cultural war so frightening.It is no longer a matter of not sinning but rather recent mandates and laws that are perilously close to forcing Christians to actually sin by assenting to or facilitating sinful relationships or acts. Such measures put at stake a person's eternal salvation as well as that of society.When moral laws are cast aside it shatters the social order, leaving big government opportunities to establish itself as a secular tribunal dictating to Christians what acts are "sinful" and which are not.This is typical of the liberal agenda; they don't want God in government but yet they want to be like God.We must be careful, because all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery; from there it is only a small step toward destroying religion itself.Walter Camier,Weatherly