God’s creative design is irrevocable. To demand he changes it is not in step with the Civil Rights Movement. The blank check society is writing the LGBT community is extremely dangerous. It shows a serious ignorance of the core tenets of the Civil Rights Movement, a hijacking mentality in politicians and businesses who are seeking personal gain. It sets a dangerous precedent for tomorrow’s pseudo-civil rights movement.

The recent debates over religious liberty in Indiana concerning the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA); Alabama’s recent battles over gay marriage; the celebration of the Selma to Montgomery March; the President’s recent support of banning gay conversion therapy; the pending SCOTUS decision on gay marriage this June; all of these current events are like a clumsy dance around an enormous elephant. The Civil Rights and LGBT movements are not identical. I know this is not a new concept, but it seems to have become an accepted part of our cultural landscape during these events. We cannot allow this to happen. Any movement, today or tomorrow, that is falsely viewed as identical to the Civil Rights Movement gains the moral high ground in our society. Any opposition to such a group is perceived as full of bigotry and hatred, even if that’s not the reality.

This is a point that African Americans have championed, not our white brothers and sisters. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place concerning this topic. Anytime they speak up about this, they are haunted by the demons of their churches and ancestors—even if they didn’t participate in the discrimination of yesterday. African Americans are the direct beneficiaries of the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. We are also, in some forms, still dealing with the residual stains of discrimination. If anyone can forcefully and unapologetically speak to the differences between the Civil Rights and LGBT movements it must be us. Let us open our mouths with the courage of those who fought for us to have the right to speak.

Similarities Between the Movements

Although the LGBT and Civil Rights movements are not identical, there are some similarities they share. If they were completely dissimilar, the vast majority of society would not entertain the lie that they are, ideologically, one and the same. As Christians, we have not done a good job of fighting for the LGBT community in areas where their struggle is legitimate. As people made in the image of God, LGBT members are certainly entitled to civil rights. Like all people, they should have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. LGBT community members should have the right to vote, to education, to work, to safety, to join the military, to play sports, to live in any neighborhood of their choosing, to justice, and to fair treatment as customers. For anyone to deny LGBT community members in these ways would indeed be on the wrong side of history and disobedient to Jesus Christ. These were the same rights that cost thousands of black and white citizens their lives during the Civil Rights Movement. It is not enough to merely tolerate LGBT community members seeking to obtain these rights. We must seek to ensure that they receive them.

Differences in the Movements

If this is where the LGBT movement stopped, they would be almost lockstep with the Civil Rights Movement. However, a few key differences remain. First, blackness cannot be hidden (in the vast majority of cases). Actually, most of the rights mentioned above require identification of ethnicity. There is no closet you can go in to hide your ethnicity. Sexual preference, however, can be kept a secret—although I’m not suggesting it should be—allowing one to avoid the persecution African Americans could not escape. There was a time when merely existing in America as a black person meant overt mistreatment. For all the horrible things that have happened to some LGBT community members, this has never been their plight, nor will it be. Today, crimes committed against LGBT members are prosecuted by law. This is a luxury not afforded to the original participants in the Civil Rights struggle.

LGBT Movement Push Beyond Civil Rights

Secondly, as Dr. Carl Ellis has helped me see, the Civil Rights Movement was deeply rooted in and rigorously affirming towards God’s created order. The LGBT movement in its fight for the redefinition of marriage and gender is opposed to God’s created order (Gen. 1:26-27; Gen. 2:7,18-25). In these areas, the LGBT movement is seeking to redefine God’s creative design in order to turn their preferences into civil rights.

Gender cannot be changed. Yes, one can surgically alter sexual organs and undergo hormone therapy. However, those things no more change a person’s gender than saying that shaving the bark off a tree and cutting off all but five branches makes it an arm. To cry “discrimination” and say I was born a man, but I want to use the girls’ bathroom, is wrong. We have a civil right to have surgery. We have a civil right to change our name. We have a civil right to dress as we desire. We even have a civil right not to be mistreated because of those changes. We do not have a civil right to change God’s gender definitions, nor force society to grant us privileges for which we do not meet the genetic gender requirement.

Marriage is an institution created by God for one man and one woman to enjoy. Marriage is a privilege, and certain criteria must be met before it is enjoyed. When we go to Disney World there are height requirements for certain rides. It’s not discrimination if we are refused admission to a ride because we don’t meet that height requirement. America did not invent marriage. It is simply acknowledging what God created. It is not a civil right to redefine marriage and cry “discrimination” because people are not eager to participate in unions God has not blessed. Even the pursuit of making interracial marriages acceptable and the Women’s Rights Movement were not fights to redefine marriage and gender. They were affirmations of God’s design and endeavors to partake in the rights and privileges his design afforded them.

God’s creative design is irrevocable. To demand he changes it is not in step with the Civil Rights Movement. The blank check society is writing the LGBT community is extremely dangerous. It shows a serious ignorance of the core tenets of the Civil Rights Movement, a hijacking mentality in politicians and businesses who are seeking personal gain. It sets a dangerous precedent for tomorrow’s pseudo-civil rights movement. We must speak boldly and passionately. We must swim against the current and demand distinctions be made between legitimate civil rights and preferences. We must sound the alarm before society turns into a chaotic, untamable shouting match about personal preferences and agendas.

Terrence Jones is the Lead Pastor of Strong Tower Church, an inner city church in Montgomery, Alabama. This article first appeared on the Reformed African American Network blog and is used with permission.

[Editor’s note: The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]