A Subtle Influence
How did the US go from treating homosexuality as a death penalty crime to legalizing gay marriage?
When the United States became a nation in 1787, homosexuality was a death penalty crime in all 13 states. (Thomas Jefferson had tried unsuccessfully to get the penalty reduced to castration when he was in the Virginia legislature in 1779.)
As the US continued to expand this remained to be the case in most states until about 1900 when some states started relaxing the penalties and enforcement of these laws. This was most prevalent in states in the northeast US that had absorbed large amounts of immigrants from Europe. Still until 1962 every state had sodomy laws on their books and most of them enforced them to deter homosexuality as they enforced other laws to deter murder and rape.
When the United States became a nation in 1787, homosexuality was a death penalty crime in all 13 states. (Thomas Jefferson had tried unsuccessfully to get the penalty reduced to castration when he was in the Virginia legislature in 1779.)
As the US continued to expand this remained to be the case in most states until about 1900 when some states started relaxing the penalties and enforcement of these laws. This was most prevalent in states in the northeast US that had absorbed large amounts of immigrants from Europe. Still until 1962 every state had sodomy laws on their books and most of them enforced them to deter homosexuality as they enforced other laws to deter murder and rape.
Then Illinois legalized homosexuality in 1962. (This was the same year that prayer was removed from public schools by the US Supreme Court). The politics of Illinois were dominated by Chicago - which had been largely populated by these European immigrants.
When I joined the US Air Force in 1985, homosexuality was still a crime on par with murder, rape, adultery and treason according to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). For this reason I was told that it was a crime before I joined and had to sign a document stating that I was not a homosexual. The reason for this warning was even though homosexuality was no longer a crime in about half of the states of the US there were the other states where it was still treated as a crime. For example, Alaska still gave offenders life in prison for committing this crime.
In 1986 all state laws against homosexuality were upheld by the Supreme Court as being constitutional.
In 1994, President Clinton issued his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" executive order which forbid the US military from asking if people were homosexuals before they enlisted and allowed homosexuals to serve as long as they did not tell anyone that they were homosexuals. This executive order was given as a way to bypass the law against homosexuality in the UCMJ which could only changed with the consent of Congress. (He had managed to tick off enough voters in his first two years in office that the House of Representatives fell out of control of his party for the first time in fifty years. So there was no chance of getting the UCMJ changed.)
Over the next nine years, courts dominated by the descendants of these same European immigrants continued to strike down sodomy laws in some states while the legislatures (composed of people of a similar heritage) of other states removed these laws from their books. Almost none of the states actually removed them by popular vote.
Still by 2003 there were 13 states (plus half of the state of Missouri) that had not removed homosexuality from being a crime in their books although the laws were rarely enforced by this time. Then those laws were removed by the same process as it had been in most of the other states - by court order, in this case a US Supreme Court order arising from Lawrence vs Texas.
Then in 2009 Vermont became the first state to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples.
Then on September 20, 2011 the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was lifted since homosexuality was no longer a crime according to the UCMJ.
Currently (MAY 2014) gay marriage has been made legal in three states by popular vote, voted in by the legislatures of eight states and bans against gay marriage in eight states voted in by the people were overruled by the courts making a total of 19 states (plus the District of Columbia) that recognize gay marriage. The other 31 states currently refuse to recognize gay marriage. This a problem since these gay couples that are legally married in those 19 states will undoubtedly want to have their marriage still legally recognized if they move to one of the other 31 states.
There can really be only a few ways for this conflict to end. The 19 states could repeal their laws and gay marriage not be recognized as legal anywhere in the US. The other 31 states could repeal their laws and gay marriage be recognized as legal everywhere in the US. The US government could pass a law making gay marriage legal or illegal in all states. The US Supreme court could make a decision doing the same thing. The US could split into two countries - one that recognizes gay marriage and one that does not. (This would probably lead to a second American Civil War.) The last three options are the most likely to occur - perhaps in that order.
So this brings up a few questions about America.
Why did the founding fathers treat homosexuality as a death penalty crime?
Eleven of the original thirteen colonies were started by the Children of Truth (those who obey the Father of Truth because they love Him) who had left England to get away from a corrupt society that had turned against living in accordance with the Book of Truth (The Bible). Between the founding of James Town in 1607 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 people had moved from other places in Europe to the original thirteen colonies for usually the same reasons as those who had moved from England. So by the time that the Revolutionary War began the thirteen colonies had been continually populated by people that held the Law of Truth (The Torah aka The Law) in high regard. These colonies (later states) made homosexuality a death penalty crime because it was a death penalty crime in the Law of Truth (Leviticus 20:13). They based their laws on the Law of Truth as the Father of Truth (Yahweh aka God) had commanded (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).
Why were laws that treated homosexuality as a crime called sodomy laws?
They were called sodomy laws because the Original Covenant (Tenakh aka The Old Testament) refers to homosexuals as sodomites so the act of homosexuality is called sodomy. Sodom was the first city where homosexuality was accepted as normal behavior (Genesis 19:4-5). For this reason homosexuals are referred to as sodomites (Deuteronomy 23:17). Homosexuals are also referred to figuratively as dogs because of the similarity in appearance between dogs mating and certain homosexual sex acts (Deuteronomy 23:18).
What has driven America to take the completely opposite view of homosexuality today from the time of its founding fathers?
This change in view has been a slow ongoing process that has taken more than a hundred years. The wheels of progressing towards this view that directly contradicts that of the Book of Truth began turning when there were massive waves of immigration from Europe from the end of the 1800s through the early 1900s. These later immigrants came to America for entirely different reasons than the immigrants that had trickled in from Europe for the almost three centuries prior to that.
Most Europeans had largely sought to disconnect themselves from the Father of Truth starting in France at the end of the 1700s. This had lead to much bloodshed like the French Revolution and consequently to economic hardship. So these immigrants sought to escape the consequences of rejecting laws based on the Law of Truth by coming to the US. When they arrived they brought their disdain for the Law of Truth with them. They seemed to have no concept that they had caused their own misery.
These were the very kind of people that had caused the original colonists to leave Europe in the first place. The Founding Fathers had left Europe to be separated from people like this because they did not want Europeans corrupting their descendants with European ideas that contracted the Book of Truth. Their concern was not that of a sudden change in American values but a slow one over several generations through a subtle influence. They developed a policy of minimal necessary contact between Americans and Europeans called isolationism.
Where did they get this idea that Europeans who rejected the Law of Truth could turn their descendants from basing the laws of America on the Law of Truth over time through a subtle influence?
The Book of Truth told of this very same thing happening to the Children of Israel.
The ancestors of the Children of Israel - Abraham (Abram), Isaac (Yitzakh) and Jacob (Ya'acob) had dwelt among the Canaanites before they were separated from them to live in another land (Joshua 24:3-4). After many generations the Father of Truth brought them back to the land to destroy the Canaanites because they had accepted homosexuality as normal behavior (1 Kings 14:24). Yet many generations later even the mainline religious professionals of the Children of Israel had accepted homosexuality as normal behavior (2 Kings 23:7).
How did the Children of Israel go from destroying these nations for being homosexuals to accepting homosexuality as normal?
They had disregarded the warning to not make deals with or to even to eat with these nations that accepted homosexuality as normal so that they would not abandon following the Father of Truth (Exodus 34:14-16). They had intermarried with these nations that accepted homosexuality as normal so that these nations turned their hearts away from the Father of Truth (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). They had not destroyed these nations completely as the Father of Truth had commanded but instead allowed these nations, even though they were a minority, to exercise a subtle influence on them by living among them (Psalm 106:34-35). It was a subtle influence that caused the Children of Israel to eventually call homosexuality good when the Law of Truth called it evil and to call the law demanding death for homosexuality evil when the Father of Truth called it good (Isaiah 5:20).
It was a subtle influence that these nations used to turn the Children of Israel completely against the Law of Truth. It was the acceptance of homosexuality as normal that showed that the Children of Israel had turned completely against the Law of Truth. This acceptance of homosexuality as normal marks the point of no return for any nation. When a nation comes to this point it has completely rejected the Father of Truth. Until then a nation might repent.
This is why the Father of Truth did not send the Children of Israel back to the land of Canaan to start destroying these nations until these nations had reached this point of no return (Genesis 15:16). This point of no return was the end result of rejecting the Father of Truth completely (Romans 1:26-28). Those whose minds were not influenced at all by the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka the Holy Spirit aka the Holy Ghost) could not help but hate the Law of Truth (Romans 8:6-7).
This point of no return was not reached by the Children of Israel at same time everywhere but started with just one city (Judges 19:22). This strategy of a subtle influence was like leaven - a little will spread through everything until everything was affected (Matthew 13:33).
It was for this reason that the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) warned against tolerating any teaching that is contrary to the Law of Truth (Matthew 16:11-12). He warned that a subtle influence from those who live contrary to the Law of Truth will lead to laws that are contrary to the Law of Truth (Mark 8:15). In like manner Paul the Jew (Shaul aka Saul) warned that the Children of Truth must not tolerate anything that is contrary to what the Man of Truth taught (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). He warned that if they tolerate anything that is contrary to the Law of Truth then it would spread everywhere and affect everything over time through a subtle influence (Galatians 5:9).
Of course, this strategy of a subtle influence to turn the laws of America away from being in line with the Law of Truth comes from the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan aka The Devil). He used a subtle influence to bring mankind to rebel against the Father of Truth in the first place (Genesis 3:1-3). He still uses a subtle influence to destroy people (John 10:10). For this reason, the Children of Truth are warned to not make any space in their lives for anything that is from the Father of Lies (Ephesians 4:27).
The Father of Lies has been using a subtle influence to keep the US from repenting so it will be destroyed as explained in The Death Of America. He has even used a subtle influence to deceive many religious professionals to teach that the Man of Truth taught tolerance for the very things that he said were intolerable as explained in Taken Out Of Context.
So why has America not been destroyed by a subtle influence like the nations of the Children of Israel were?
The Father of Truth has not brought the full judgment on America that comes from this subtle influence yet because He would rather see America repent (2 Peter 3:9). The Man of Truth has been giving America space to go back to basing its laws on the Law of Truth before bringing the full judgment that its actions deserve (Revelation 2:21).
The Good News is that America can still repent! It starts with the Children of Truth treating those that have been deceived into homosexuality thorough a subtle influence in the same way that the Man of Truth would treat homosexuals as explained in Ellen DeGeneres.
Perhaps you have come to realize that you have been moved far from the Father of Truth slowly over time through a subtle influence by those who reject the Law of Truth. The Good News is that you can still repent! You can come into the House of Truth by putting the the Man of Truth in charge of every area of your life because you believe that His Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). His blood is sufficient to cleanse you from whatever you have done if you will come into the House of Truth (1 John 1:7).
Come into the House of Truth.
When I joined the US Air Force in 1985, homosexuality was still a crime on par with murder, rape, adultery and treason according to the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). For this reason I was told that it was a crime before I joined and had to sign a document stating that I was not a homosexual. The reason for this warning was even though homosexuality was no longer a crime in about half of the states of the US there were the other states where it was still treated as a crime. For example, Alaska still gave offenders life in prison for committing this crime.
In 1986 all state laws against homosexuality were upheld by the Supreme Court as being constitutional.
In 1994, President Clinton issued his "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" executive order which forbid the US military from asking if people were homosexuals before they enlisted and allowed homosexuals to serve as long as they did not tell anyone that they were homosexuals. This executive order was given as a way to bypass the law against homosexuality in the UCMJ which could only changed with the consent of Congress. (He had managed to tick off enough voters in his first two years in office that the House of Representatives fell out of control of his party for the first time in fifty years. So there was no chance of getting the UCMJ changed.)
Over the next nine years, courts dominated by the descendants of these same European immigrants continued to strike down sodomy laws in some states while the legislatures (composed of people of a similar heritage) of other states removed these laws from their books. Almost none of the states actually removed them by popular vote.
Still by 2003 there were 13 states (plus half of the state of Missouri) that had not removed homosexuality from being a crime in their books although the laws were rarely enforced by this time. Then those laws were removed by the same process as it had been in most of the other states - by court order, in this case a US Supreme Court order arising from Lawrence vs Texas.
Then in 2009 Vermont became the first state to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples.
Then on September 20, 2011 the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was lifted since homosexuality was no longer a crime according to the UCMJ.
Currently (MAY 2014) gay marriage has been made legal in three states by popular vote, voted in by the legislatures of eight states and bans against gay marriage in eight states voted in by the people were overruled by the courts making a total of 19 states (plus the District of Columbia) that recognize gay marriage. The other 31 states currently refuse to recognize gay marriage. This a problem since these gay couples that are legally married in those 19 states will undoubtedly want to have their marriage still legally recognized if they move to one of the other 31 states.
There can really be only a few ways for this conflict to end. The 19 states could repeal their laws and gay marriage not be recognized as legal anywhere in the US. The other 31 states could repeal their laws and gay marriage be recognized as legal everywhere in the US. The US government could pass a law making gay marriage legal or illegal in all states. The US Supreme court could make a decision doing the same thing. The US could split into two countries - one that recognizes gay marriage and one that does not. (This would probably lead to a second American Civil War.) The last three options are the most likely to occur - perhaps in that order.
So this brings up a few questions about America.
Why did the founding fathers treat homosexuality as a death penalty crime?
Eleven of the original thirteen colonies were started by the Children of Truth (those who obey the Father of Truth because they love Him) who had left England to get away from a corrupt society that had turned against living in accordance with the Book of Truth (The Bible). Between the founding of James Town in 1607 and the Declaration of Independence in 1776 people had moved from other places in Europe to the original thirteen colonies for usually the same reasons as those who had moved from England. So by the time that the Revolutionary War began the thirteen colonies had been continually populated by people that held the Law of Truth (The Torah aka The Law) in high regard. These colonies (later states) made homosexuality a death penalty crime because it was a death penalty crime in the Law of Truth (Leviticus 20:13). They based their laws on the Law of Truth as the Father of Truth (Yahweh aka God) had commanded (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).
Why were laws that treated homosexuality as a crime called sodomy laws?
They were called sodomy laws because the Original Covenant (Tenakh aka The Old Testament) refers to homosexuals as sodomites so the act of homosexuality is called sodomy. Sodom was the first city where homosexuality was accepted as normal behavior (Genesis 19:4-5). For this reason homosexuals are referred to as sodomites (Deuteronomy 23:17). Homosexuals are also referred to figuratively as dogs because of the similarity in appearance between dogs mating and certain homosexual sex acts (Deuteronomy 23:18).
What has driven America to take the completely opposite view of homosexuality today from the time of its founding fathers?
This change in view has been a slow ongoing process that has taken more than a hundred years. The wheels of progressing towards this view that directly contradicts that of the Book of Truth began turning when there were massive waves of immigration from Europe from the end of the 1800s through the early 1900s. These later immigrants came to America for entirely different reasons than the immigrants that had trickled in from Europe for the almost three centuries prior to that.
Most Europeans had largely sought to disconnect themselves from the Father of Truth starting in France at the end of the 1700s. This had lead to much bloodshed like the French Revolution and consequently to economic hardship. So these immigrants sought to escape the consequences of rejecting laws based on the Law of Truth by coming to the US. When they arrived they brought their disdain for the Law of Truth with them. They seemed to have no concept that they had caused their own misery.
These were the very kind of people that had caused the original colonists to leave Europe in the first place. The Founding Fathers had left Europe to be separated from people like this because they did not want Europeans corrupting their descendants with European ideas that contracted the Book of Truth. Their concern was not that of a sudden change in American values but a slow one over several generations through a subtle influence. They developed a policy of minimal necessary contact between Americans and Europeans called isolationism.
Where did they get this idea that Europeans who rejected the Law of Truth could turn their descendants from basing the laws of America on the Law of Truth over time through a subtle influence?
The Book of Truth told of this very same thing happening to the Children of Israel.
The ancestors of the Children of Israel - Abraham (Abram), Isaac (Yitzakh) and Jacob (Ya'acob) had dwelt among the Canaanites before they were separated from them to live in another land (Joshua 24:3-4). After many generations the Father of Truth brought them back to the land to destroy the Canaanites because they had accepted homosexuality as normal behavior (1 Kings 14:24). Yet many generations later even the mainline religious professionals of the Children of Israel had accepted homosexuality as normal behavior (2 Kings 23:7).
How did the Children of Israel go from destroying these nations for being homosexuals to accepting homosexuality as normal?
They had disregarded the warning to not make deals with or to even to eat with these nations that accepted homosexuality as normal so that they would not abandon following the Father of Truth (Exodus 34:14-16). They had intermarried with these nations that accepted homosexuality as normal so that these nations turned their hearts away from the Father of Truth (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). They had not destroyed these nations completely as the Father of Truth had commanded but instead allowed these nations, even though they were a minority, to exercise a subtle influence on them by living among them (Psalm 106:34-35). It was a subtle influence that caused the Children of Israel to eventually call homosexuality good when the Law of Truth called it evil and to call the law demanding death for homosexuality evil when the Father of Truth called it good (Isaiah 5:20).
It was a subtle influence that these nations used to turn the Children of Israel completely against the Law of Truth. It was the acceptance of homosexuality as normal that showed that the Children of Israel had turned completely against the Law of Truth. This acceptance of homosexuality as normal marks the point of no return for any nation. When a nation comes to this point it has completely rejected the Father of Truth. Until then a nation might repent.
This is why the Father of Truth did not send the Children of Israel back to the land of Canaan to start destroying these nations until these nations had reached this point of no return (Genesis 15:16). This point of no return was the end result of rejecting the Father of Truth completely (Romans 1:26-28). Those whose minds were not influenced at all by the Spirit of Truth (Ruach HaQodesh aka the Holy Spirit aka the Holy Ghost) could not help but hate the Law of Truth (Romans 8:6-7).
This point of no return was not reached by the Children of Israel at same time everywhere but started with just one city (Judges 19:22). This strategy of a subtle influence was like leaven - a little will spread through everything until everything was affected (Matthew 13:33).
It was for this reason that the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) warned against tolerating any teaching that is contrary to the Law of Truth (Matthew 16:11-12). He warned that a subtle influence from those who live contrary to the Law of Truth will lead to laws that are contrary to the Law of Truth (Mark 8:15). In like manner Paul the Jew (Shaul aka Saul) warned that the Children of Truth must not tolerate anything that is contrary to what the Man of Truth taught (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). He warned that if they tolerate anything that is contrary to the Law of Truth then it would spread everywhere and affect everything over time through a subtle influence (Galatians 5:9).
Of course, this strategy of a subtle influence to turn the laws of America away from being in line with the Law of Truth comes from the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan aka The Devil). He used a subtle influence to bring mankind to rebel against the Father of Truth in the first place (Genesis 3:1-3). He still uses a subtle influence to destroy people (John 10:10). For this reason, the Children of Truth are warned to not make any space in their lives for anything that is from the Father of Lies (Ephesians 4:27).
The Father of Lies has been using a subtle influence to keep the US from repenting so it will be destroyed as explained in The Death Of America. He has even used a subtle influence to deceive many religious professionals to teach that the Man of Truth taught tolerance for the very things that he said were intolerable as explained in Taken Out Of Context.
So why has America not been destroyed by a subtle influence like the nations of the Children of Israel were?
The Father of Truth has not brought the full judgment on America that comes from this subtle influence yet because He would rather see America repent (2 Peter 3:9). The Man of Truth has been giving America space to go back to basing its laws on the Law of Truth before bringing the full judgment that its actions deserve (Revelation 2:21).
The Good News is that America can still repent! It starts with the Children of Truth treating those that have been deceived into homosexuality thorough a subtle influence in the same way that the Man of Truth would treat homosexuals as explained in Ellen DeGeneres.
Perhaps you have come to realize that you have been moved far from the Father of Truth slowly over time through a subtle influence by those who reject the Law of Truth. The Good News is that you can still repent! You can come into the House of Truth by putting the the Man of Truth in charge of every area of your life because you believe that His Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9). His blood is sufficient to cleanse you from whatever you have done if you will come into the House of Truth (1 John 1:7).
Come into the House of Truth.
Labels: America, Founding Fathers, Gay Marriage, History, Homosexuality, Immigration
posted by The House Of Truth @ May 31, 2014
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