When both our friends at the Family Research Council and leaders at the Human Rights Campaign – one of LGBT activists’ flagship organizations – come out strong against new legislation purporting to defend religious freedom, it turns heads. At least, it turned my head when FRC President Tony Perkins issued a statement blasting a new “Fairness for All” bill as “near-total surrender to the aggressive LGBT agenda.” Similarly, HRC joined together with the ACLU and other “progressive” groups to call this legislation an “an affront to existing civil rights protections” and “deeply dangerous.”

What is this bill that could stir such passionate responses? It is new legislation sponsored by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) that attempts to diffuse the battle between religious freedom rights and concerns for fair treatment of people who identify as gay or transgender.

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You may remember that the U.S. House of Representatives approved the so-called “Equality Act” (H.R. 5) in May. That dangerous legislation is a “winner-take-all” bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had promised to LGBT activists during the 2018 election cycle. It not only elevates “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (SOGI) to specially protected categories in broad swaths of civil rights law, but it also allows no quarter for people with basic biblical beliefs about marriage and human sexuality. Actually, the “Equality Act” goes further. It specifically forbids those it would accuse of discrimination from appealing to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a law signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and famously the basis for Hobby Lobby’s victory over the Obama Administration in 2014.

The “Fairness for All” (FFA) bill would similarly entrench new SOGI employment, housing, and public accommodation protections in U.S. law. However, not only would it leave RFRA intact, but also it would add new religious freedom language to defend the rights of churches, charities, adoption agencies, Christian colleges, and others to live in light of their faith. Rep. Stewart said, “This legislation allows us to settle the legal questions and get back to the business of loving our neighbors.”

At least that is the hope of the FFA’s supporters. FRC’s Tony Perkins and a host of other faith and freedom allies, including Alliance Defending Freedom and Focus on the Family, strongly disagree. Perhaps one of the best rebuttals last Friday came from Dr. Ryan Anderson of the Heritage Foundation who wrote:

Despite the undoubted good will of those who drafted and introduced the legislation, and despite some meaningful though insufficient protections for religious liberty, the bill is not in fact fair for all. Its protections for religious liberty come at the high cost of enshrining a misguided sexual and gender ideology into federal law. This will allow the federal government to use our civil rights laws as a sword to punish citizens who dissent from the reigning sexual orthodoxy.

In the spirit of fairness on my part, a link to an argument supporting FFA by the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is here. However, while I don’t doubt the sincerity of our fellow believers seeking a solution in FFA, count me very wary of this new bill. IFA intercessors know the dangers of LGBT extremists’ SOGI strategy. In fact, we issued a special report on this in June (get it here).

We need to be praying fervently for our nation about this matter. Specifically, we need to pray for our elected leaders. Democrats have already gone all in behind the devastating “Equality Act,” and I have no doubt Republicans at the highest levels are under intense pressure. Expect that pressure to increase during the 2020 campaign season, especially in May or June when the Supreme Court hands down its decision on whether or not current federal law already covers SOGI claims. America needs intercessors to stand in the gap now for a nation that will truly honor religious liberty and submit itself to the God’s intended purposes for marriage and human sexuality.