The House of Representatives has voted to pass the Equality Act, a bill that would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It would also substantially expand the areas to which those discrimination protections apply.
When the bill was introduced in the House, President Biden expressed his support, writing, “I urge Congress to swiftly pass this historic legislation. Every person should be treated with dignity and respect, and this bill represents a critical step toward ensuring that America lives up to our foundational values of equality and freedom for all.”
This Act and the discussion surrounding it, along with what I believe is the direction in which our culture is moving has underscored in my mind the word of the Psalmist, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (137:4) Jerusalem had fallen to Babylon in 586 B.C. Many of Judah’s best and most productive citizens were taken off into Babylonian captivity. They found themselves in exile in a land that had nothing but contempt for their God. One of those exiles, upon his return years later, reflected on his experience and wrote these moving words. He said, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137:1) Then he told of how their captors sought to get them to sing one of the songs of Zion…and they asked that haunting question, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.”
It’s a probing question that I find myself asking now and again. My concern is that laws are going to continue to be passed that ought to make us (Christians particularly) ask the question more often than we do.
It isn’t that we are not as committed as anyone else that America lives up to our foundational values of equality and freedom for all. The fact is we differ on our values. One issue that makes that abundantly clear is abortion. When people break into applause as the governor signs a bill that a baby’s life may be ended we moan, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” The song becomes equally mournful when the government denies support to a hospital which will not perform abortions.
Numerous issues surrounding sexuality and gender beg questions about freedom for one denying freedom to another. And the impact is not just to individuals but to families, communities, and in some instances, to entire religious groups.
Ponder with me. Though it isn’t easy, we can be committed to justice without compromising morals, and without making an idol out of a social issue like equality. I’m working at it. I don’t want the dominant social/political circumstances of our nation to make the song of the psalmist our theme song, How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.