Obergefell, the 2016 Dear Colleague letter, and the naked use of the I.R.S. to punish cultural and political opponents together send a strong signal about where the left wants to take the USA. The old liberals retained some vestiges of Christianity and some willingness to tolerate those with whom they disagree. The contemporary left is both largely ignorant of Christianity and quite hostile to it (or what they imagine it to be). The “progressive” cultural-political agenda of the left is their religion. We know that is so by the way they speak about it. They demand total conformity and they persecute dissenters with a fury that would make the even the most devout member of the Spanish Inquisition blush.

This morning I am thinking of younger American Christians, especially of those who have come of age during the Trump administration. A young person who was 16 when the Trump administration began is now approaching 20 and is perhaps becoming more politically aware. What that former sixteen-year old may not remember is the growing pressure that the second Obama administration was placing upon churches and Christian institutions (e.g., Christian schools).

The Proximate Sources

Three of the more outstanding sources of pressure upon the church and allied institutions were 1) the 2015 Obergefell decision by the Supreme Court of the United States; 2) the 2016 “Dear Colleague” Letter on transgender students; 3) the use of the I.R.S. as a political weapon.

With the defeat of the Hillary Clinton the Trump administration essentially put the Obama agenda on pause. With the apparent election of Joe Biden (pending any court or legislative challenges) American Christians may reasonably expect the resumption of the Obama agenda.

The landmark Obergefell decision was a revolution, the full effect of which is yet to be seen. In it the court fundamentally redefined marriage by eliminating nature from the equation and substituting affection and consent. The court essentially ruled that the historic understanding of marriage was an arbitrary construction eligible for deconstruction and reconstruction in the image of late-modern subjectivism.

In the wake of Obergefell we began to see the wave of legal and administrative actions predicted by the dissenters on the court. Unelected civil rights commissions began levying large fines against those who did not fall into line with the new orthodoxy and orthodopraxy. The court has tried to reign such abuses in but they did not end until the beginning of the Trump administration.

The 2016 “Dear Colleage” letter from the Department of Education, regarding the rights of transgender students, sent shockwaves through the educational establishment. Adam Kissel explains:

Gordon College, Westminster Theological Seminary, Thomas Aquinas College, and others have even faced threats to their continued existence: having their official accreditation revoked. To protect the freedom, access, diversity, equity, and inclusion of all colleges—including religious ones—the Trump Administration’s Department of Education has recently taken action to partially blunt de-accreditation attacks. But religious colleges remain in the crosshairs of critics who view them as insufficiently progressive. Donors who support higher education or who seek to safeguard religious freedom and toleration will want to watch closely.

Gordon’s accreditation was first threatened in 2014, after the college president joined a letter to President Barack Obama asking that religious contractors be allowed to participate on equal footing with other contractors in federal programs. Advocates who believe religious institutions like Gordon discriminate against sexual minorities struck back. The city of Salem, Massachusetts, ended a contract with the college. The Lynn school district terminated a longstanding partnership that had benefited local students. Then the New England Association of Schools and Colleges demanded that Gordon prove within a year “that the College’s policies and procedures are non-discriminatory.”

Under the policy articulated in the letter, schools that hold to the traditional Christian view of human sexuality (i.e., that God created humanity male and female and the marriage is between a man and a woman) would have to apply for exemption from this extension of the Title IX rules.

The Trump administration rescinded that letter (see the resources below) but, with the return of the Obama team to the White House and the cabinet, we may reasonably expect the return of the 2016 letter.

Should colleges and other schools lose their accreditation, they will be ineligible for federally guaranteed student loans. “Fine,” you say, schools should not be accountable to accreditors. Let the schools function without student loans.” Setting aside the theoretical debate about the usefulness of accreditation (which, as a former Accreditation Liaison Officer, I appreciate) there are pressing practical questions: is the Christian public willing to make up the tuition revenue lost to the schools? Is it willing to help students re-pay private student loans borrowed at higher interest rates?

Third, under the Obama administration, apparently at the urging of the late senior United States Senator from Arizona, John McCain, the Internal Revenue Service attempted to turn back the “Tea Party Movement,” a political response to the Obama Administration (arguably the beginning of the Trump Movement) by denying tax-exempt status to socially and economically conservative organizations. That unofficial policy came to be most closely associated with Lois Lerner, a former I.R.S. administrator.

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