The rainbow colors lighting up the White House immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage seem to indicate loyalty to a new flag of faith that signifies supremacy over the traditional stars and stripes of the American flag -- or any other flag, including the Christian banner. The acts of our president and the decision of the Supreme Court are strong indications the current administration and SCOTUS are disregarding entirely the First Amendment and are setting up a state religion based on sexual identity politics. Their actions endorse a cult characterized by an extraordinarily reductionist view of the human being, who is now to be defined only in terms of sexual inclination and practice. Absolute sexual “freedom” now heads up a new Bill of Rights.

Now the federal government will proceed to do everything possible to promulgate the new faith. Some may protest, saying the Left’s promulgation of the LGBT movement as well as the federal government’s endorsement of the special interest group has been and still is about civil rights. Not so.

The extremists of the LGBT movement display all the characteristics of a cult-like religion, including opposing critical thinking, severely penalizing any opposition, demanding complete and unwavering acceptance of its doctrines, putting loyalty to the cult above family and any other institution, including the Church, disallowing any member the right to change one’s mind and leave or seek change without dire consequences, as well as essentially demanding complete capitulation of conscience of doubtful converts.

Just as importantly, the LGBT movement deals with ultimate questions belonging to theology. The movement holds to theological doctrines concerning the nature of the human being, sexual identity and behavior, the definition of marriage, the family and the place of children, the role of government, and the transformation of traditional American institutions and documents adhering to Christian principles, particularly the Church -- and the US Constitution. It has set itself up as a new sexual orthodoxy that usurps the place of orthodox Christianity and Judaism.

In brief, the establishment of the new state orthodoxy, the genesis of which can be found in ancient pagan phallic cults, is the culmination of several generations of efforts to displace Christianity and Judaism in America. Now that the modern sexual creed is woven into the very fabric of the executive and judicial branches, both will accelerate attempts to promulgate the sex cult, increasingly targeting Orthodox Christians and Jews.

As noted, the LGBT movement is characterized by severe and draconian reductionism. Only one aspect of what it means to be human – sexuality -- is emphasized.

Reductionism is always tyranny’s handmaiden. People are much more easily categorized and then punished when they are seen through only one prism or measured by only one characteristic such as race or sexual proclivities. Dissenters are far more readily judged to condemnation by only “incorrect” belief. That is why tyrannical ideologues take one or two favorite doctrines deemed as infallibly central to their power plays, separate people out according to belief or disbelief in those tenets, and then punish or completely eliminate any who oppose them.

The litmus test of the new creed can be race, a single ideological tenet, or the equivalent of a password. “Are you more than 50% Jewish?” “Do you believe in Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book?” “Stomp on this image of Christ.”

No? You are anti-government and a threat to civil society. Justified oppression awaits you.

The new state sanctioned cult also has its litmus tests.

“Will you or will you not bake a cake for our gay wedding and thus participate in a service of a faith that is in diametrically opposed to your own beliefs?” No? You are fined $135,000 and must obey a gag order.

“You object to having your sixth grade daughter fitted with an IUD?” You must adhere to a strange morality diametrically opposed to the tenets of our cult. You are a Christian? Your parental rights and your consciences are overruled by what your little girl and we choose.

“You don’t want your children to receive lessons on anal sex and incest? You object to your school’s goal to teach students about homosexual, bisexual, and transgender identity?” You probably should be visited by Social Services.

Very importantly, the new passwords and litmus tests of the new American state religion will make it relatively easy for a tyrannous United States government to persecute and prosecute the Christian Church, raiding it for its wealth by taxation and eventually seizing its assets, much as Henry VIII confiscated the wealth of the monasteries when he made himself the supreme head of the Church of England.

All that has to be done is to apply the sex cult’s litmus test to pastors and the congregants: “Will you marry same sex couples?” An answer in the negative will automatically make the church and every member within an enemy of the state and therefore worthy of exploitation of assets and, ultimately, complete destruction.

Hyperbole? Scarcely.

History is replete with efforts to make the gods of the state ascendant and without competition, complete with forced compliance to new mores, dictates and “rights,” sexual and/or otherwise. The question of “Will you marry same sex couples” amounts to the older, perennial challenge to dissidents of any era: “Will you bow down and worship Caesar?”

Caesar has many guises by which he has time and again attempted to enter and conquer the sacred temple, bringing his statues and religion with him. So there is nothing new in the attempt of the LGBT movement to insert the doctrine of gay marriage as a scared rite within the Christian Church, forcing the Church to alter one of its most sacred ceremonies in order the liturgy and doctrines be retrofitted to the new dogma.

After all, Jews of the Maccabaen era found out just how far Caesar would go when Antiochus IV decided to destroy them and their religion, supplanting Judaism with Greek culture, including Greek mores and Greek gods. As Bible History Online relates:

“The most radical Hellenizers felt that things were not moving fast enough.... It was now the goal that Judaism was to be destroyed. In the mind of Antiochus to be un-Hellenized was stiff-necked nonsense. If Judaism stood in the way then Judaism was to be destroyed so he gave the orders. “The Syrian army marched into Jerusalem and many of the people were killed and others escaped to the hills…Orders were given: NO Sabbath, NO Holy Days, and NO Circumcision. A Statue of Zeus/Antiochus was placed in the Temple above the altar. The most detestable animals (the pig) were brought and sacrificed on the altar.”

The outrages of Antiochus IV would be repeated by Caligula, who proclaimed himself a god. He sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem to place his statue in the very Temple of the Jews. Petronius was to kill all who opposed the emperor’s decrees.

In modern times, Caesar -- in the guise of fascism, communism, Islamism and progressivism -- has demanded and is demanding Christians and others who will not worship the contemporary gods of their particular religious movement bow down and worship the gods of the State or be destroyed.

Once again, but this time here in America, the whole culture is to be fundamentally transformed by worship of Caesar’s gods. Violence toward dissenters is and will be the inevitable result.

Need we look far for contemporary examples of how Caesar’s newly established sex cult demands all bow down and worship? Lifesite News reports:

“Businesses that disagree with gay marriage are being forced to shut down. Churches in Denmark have been ordered to perform gay weddings. Our tax dollars are used to fund Pride Parades that are starting to look like public orgies. The Sexual Revolutionaries are not, for the most part, about living and let live—only look at the Trinity Western University case. They are about compulsory acceptance. Sexual rights, in other words, take precedence over all other rights.”

Bryan Fischer warns American Christians may soon be disqualified from holding public office:

“Mark my words on this. The ultimate outcome of this unconscionable act is that one day, before too long; it will be officially illegal for Christians to hold public office in the United States. “How will this happen? It’s simple. Every holder of public office takes a solemn and sacred oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Liberals will argue that since June 26, 2015, our Constitution has been amended to include the right to marriage based on the infamous crime against nature. “The left will argue that if an individual is not prepared to swear that they wholeheartedly support sodomy-based marriage, they have no right at all even to take the oath of office. An individual’s opposition to same-sex marriage will be (falsely) interpreted as opposition to the Constitution itself.”

It is clear that just as in the days of the hellenization of the Jews, just as in the days of the Caesars and all the rest of history’s tyrants, the battle lines are being drawn. The Christian Church will be required to stand for orthodoxy or be reduced to exile and ultimately total irrelevance.

But can Christians fight, even when in exile?

The answer to that question is, “Yes.” They must.

The Church can remember it is called to resist earthly authorities when those authorities exceed their God-ordained limits. Civil disobedience is a means of resistance against those who would force the Church to go against its conscience.

In Philadelphia, Liam Goligher, the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church, which the author regularly attends, has written about Tenth Presbyterian’s response to the SCOTUS decision:

“We believe that God will use this challenge to purify his church in the world. There are already conversations afoot to take away our non-profit status, which will undoubtedly have a huge effect on our work. Already there are threats that if we oppose the ruling of the Supreme Court we will be held guilty of hate speech. So be it. Our consciences are tied to the Word of God and we must stand there.”

In so writing, Dr. Goligher and others -- Franklin Graham among them-- standing against the predations of the State against Christian orthodoxy and conscience, echo the words of Martin Luther, who when called on to recant his “heretical” position, said:

“Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason -- I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen."

All Christians who adhere to orthodoxy and to their consciences, be they pastors, theologians or congregants, will find an example in the apostle Peter. When he was told to shut up and stop preaching and standing for the truths of Christianity, Peter the Rock said, “We must obey God rather than men.”

At one time Christians in America were free to say, “We must obey God rather than men.” They were even free to put into practice the belief “We must obey God rather than men.” There was great glory in that belief. There were great deeds and great reforms stemming from it, as the abolition and civil rights movements were to reveal.

Now, under increasing duress from the State concerning religious liberty, Christians must stand and say it again and again and again:

“We must obey God rather than men.”

Fay Voshell is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. Her articles also have been published in online magazines such as National Review, RealClearReligion, PJMedia and many more. She has been interviewed about her articles on talk show radio and has given lectures on politics and religion. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com