Two cases came to my attention recently where Christians are going to court to defend their right to live their lives according to their Christian values while still fully participating in society.

Captain Jeffrey Little is a 20-plus-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Lifeguard Division. In 2023, in an act of pure virtue signaling, L.A. County adopted a policy requiring the Progress Pride Flag be flown at county facilities during the month of June to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month. Because, every month, L.A. County flies somebody’s flag in order to celebrate their existence. Oh, wait … No. No, they don’t. It’s just LGBTQ people who get the special privilege of having their existence celebrated by L.A. County. Nobody else. No other groups. Heterosexuals? No. Blacks? No. Jews? No. Muslims. Well, not yet. Catholics? Are you kidding? People who are not suffering mental illness and accept their God-given gender? I assume that’s a rhetorical question. But it must be that we celebrate LGBTQ people’s existence, because how often do we get the chance to publicly congratulate people with taxpayer money for who they choose to have sex with?

I digress.

Captain Little is a devout Christian. He is also sane. As such, he requested a religious accommodation exempting him from participating in raising the Pride flag or in ensuring that his subordinates did so. He was initially granted this exemption. But L.A. County, realizing that this would mean failing to trample on the rights of a free citizen in order to force him to participate in celebrations of a lifestyle contrary to his First Amendment-protected religious sensibilities, revoked the exemption two days later. When Captain Little took down the Pride flags that were raised at his fire department, assuming he was acting under the religious exemption he had been granted, L.A. County suspended him for 15 days without pay for taking down government-issued Pride flags without authorization and violating department policy.

Captain Jeffrey Little

Which still leaves unanswered the reasonable question: Why are there government-issued Pride flags? Is there any other community in the country that gets its own government-issued flag? Bueller? Bueller? The answer is “NO!” You are only entitled to your own government-issued flag if you choose to have sex with people of the same sex. Otherwise, you are S.O.L. when it comes to government-issued flags. You can put that S.O.L. on a flag if you want, but the government will not issue it.

I digress, again.

So, Captain Little, represented by the Thomas More Society, is suing L.A. County for religious discrimination. And why wouldn’t he? It’s easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy to grant a religious accommodation exemption. There’s no reason not to, except one: L.A. County demands that all its employees buy in to the LGBTQ social and political agenda, and if you don’t, they mean to make an example of you. Captain Little says he has suffered retaliation, harassment and discrimination because of his stand and that his supervisor, Lifeguard Division Chief Fernando Boiteux told him that his “religious beliefs don’t matter.” That’s right. Those beliefs protected by the first right delineated in the Bill of Rights don’t matter. What matters is the constitutionally-guaranteed right of every LGBTQ person to have their existence celebrated and their lifestyle affirmed by government-issued flags and county policies that pay government employees to participate in such celebrations, at pain of being suspended without pay if they refuse. Hmmm … I don’t remember learning that in Civics class. But, I don’t think they teach Civics, anymore. Which prolly at least partially explains the repressive, unconstitutional actions of the L.A. County Fire Department.

Little says his lawsuit does not include a request that L.A. County rescind their Pride flag policy, only that he not be forced to participate in raising the Pride flag or in ensuring that his subordinates do so. This is so stupid. All the time, energy and resources being wasted by L.A. County just so they can virtue signal to their LGBTQ friends. And I do mean wasted, because Captain Little’s case is heading to federal court, and L.A. County is going to lose.

In a like-minded case, the state of Oregon is being sued by a Christian woman who wants to be a foster mother. Oregon won’t let you be a foster parent unless you sign on to the transgender agenda of every child having the right to choose his or her gender and receiving medical therapy to transition. That’s right: hormones! Surgery! If a boy in Oregon says he’s a girl, then by golly you have a legal obligation to accommodate his female identity by employing his preferred pronouns and assisting him in whatever legal therapies are available to children. And, in Oregon, that apparently means everything from hormone shots to chopping off one’s genitalia at the asking.

Jessica Bates is a Christian woman, mother of five, and a widow who, rather than sulking at the losses she’s suffered and the difficulties she’s faced, wants to contribute to making a child’s life better. So, she applied to be a foster mother in Oregon. She successfully completed the training, but then learned that Oregon expects all of its foster parents to buy in to the transgender agenda. “In the training,” Bates says, “the state wanted me to be willing to put pride flags around the house or if a child should come into my care that didn’t identify as binary or whatnot, then I would need to affirm their identity, use their preferred pronouns, support this behavior even if it conflicted with my faith and what I hold to be true.” Which is to say what all of civilized society held to be true until ten minutes ago, and still deep down knows what is true, if we’re gonna be honest about it!

Jessica Bates

Rather than simply say, “Okay, Ms. Bates, we’ll be sure not to send any children your way who identify as trans, non-binary, queer, or what-have-you.” No, that would be too simple, and it would fail to trample on the rights of a free citizen in order to force her to participate in celebrations of a lifestyle contrary to her First Amendment-protected religious sensibilities. Oregon can’t have that! After all, there are so few children in foster care, and so many adults on the list to foster a child, that Oregon can certainly afford to keep children in the foster care system, where they are safe and warm under the protective arm of the state and its social services, rather than turn them over to a monster like Bates. Hmmm … Bates? Bates? Any relation to Norman? I wouldn’t doubt it, you disgusting excuse of a human being, you!

Again, there was only one reason for Oregon to deny Ms. Bates her application to be a foster mother (and they did deny it). That is to impose the LGBTQ social and political agenda on her, and anyone else who thinks they have the right to participate in society by the self-sacrificial offering of turning their lives upside down for the sake of a child. You must conform! There will be no questions! If you think that the state of Oregon is so callous with the lives of foster children that they would keep 99% of these children out of the homes of loving families in order to “protect” the “rights” of the 1% and to virtue signal to the LGBTQ community that their political and social agenda trumps everything else, including the needs of children, then you are correct! The state of Oregon is, indeed, that callous with the lives of foster children. Proving one’s woke credentials is far more important than the genuine needs of children. And affirming the constitutionally-protected rights of every child to be whatever sex they want to be, including none at all (I’m sure Jimmy Madison included that one in there somewhere), is far more important than recognizing the First Amendment rights of religous freedom to some kook who prolly feeds rats to her children and forces them to kneel and pray for hours on nail-studded two-by-fours. God bless Oregon for saving their foster children from such a horrible fate! Look at the pic of Jessica Bates above. Can’t you just see the hate pouring from her eyes?

It makes no sense, and it’s down right cruel, to deny a child a good and caring foster mother because the state has a social and political agenda to push and this particular woman doesn’t adhere to that agenda. What does the kid care?

Turns out the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals retains some measure of constitutional coherence, for it ruled that Ms. Bates may continue with her application to become a foster mother while her case progresses through the courts. Who knows what will happen? I do! Oregon is going to lose. This is America, people! Publicly-funded programs cannot discriminate against people because of their religous beliefs. Sheesh! How many times is this going to have to come before the courts before people get in their heads that citizens are allowed to believe according to their religious affiliation and their consciences, and that the state cannot tell them you’re not allowed to take part in publicly-funded programs because of what you believe, about transgenderism or anything else, for that matter.

Christians have a right to live as Christians. Jews have a right to live as Jews. Muslims have a right to live as Muslims. And on and on. So long as their activities are not bringing undue harm or burden to others, then let people live their religious lives. Oregon should know better. Hopefully, they soon will.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.