Hostile questions regarding the Day of Truth
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- Aren’t you just causing trouble and trying to generate confrontation?
- Don’t you think people who engage in homosexual behavior should have the same rights as everyone else? If you’re standing up for free speech, then how come you want to stifle them?
- Aren’t you just being judgmental?
- Why are you focusing on this sin and ignoring all the others?
- Who’s behind this? Aren’t they just some sort of religious group trying to force their views down our throats?
- Did you receive permission from the school? Is what you are doing legal?
- Do your parents know you are doing this? Did they or your church put you up to this?
- Aren’t you just a "copy-cat" – trying to do something similar to what the Gay-Straight Alliance has already done, only you are doing it because you don’t like them?
- How do you know your “truth” is the absolute truth? Isn’t truth a relative term?
- Aren’t you just causing trouble and trying to generate confrontation?
No. We are simply exercising our constitutionally guaranteed right to freely and publicly express our religious viewpoints. We are trying to counter organized efforts to legitimize and promote the homosexual agenda in the public schools. We are participating in the Day of Truth not only to exercise our right to free speech, but also out of our love and compassion for those who are struggling with their sexual identity and to provide them with hope through the love of Jesus Christ.
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- Don’t you think people who engage in homosexual behavior should have the same rights as everyone else? If you’re standing up for free speech, then how come you want to stifle them?
Those who engage in homosexual behavior already have the same rights as everyone else. The Day of Truth is not about taking anyone’s “rights” away from them. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, however, guarantees all groups the right to express their views. We are merely taking advantage of that right, just as groups such as the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Educational Network (GLSEN) do. Free speech applies to everyone, not just selected groups and individuals. No individual who supports a free and democratic society would advocate the censorship of viewpoints.
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- Aren’t you just being judgmental?
We are expressing our viewpoint and exercising what we believe to be sound discernment regarding an aggressive campaign being carried out in our public schools to legitimize personal and socially destructive behavior.
We are merely trying to point those who struggle with homosexual behavior to Christ’s love and healing. When Christ loved someone, like the woman caught in adultery, he did not condemn her but expressed compassion for her. He also gave her the loving admonition to “go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11). As followers of Jesus Christ, we cannot sit idly by while someone is trapped in sinful behavior that separates him or her from God. We must be able to show people their need for a relationship with Jesus Christ, which often comes through illuminating the sinfulness of their behavior that separates them from their loving God.
We strongly disassociate from and condemn those who spew hatred or mock human suffering. Such behavior is not our approach. Christ had compassion for the sinner, and most believers understand that we are all sinners saved through Christ’s death and resurrection.
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- Why are you focusing on this sin and ignoring all the others?
There is no irrelevant sin in the Bible. All sins are wicked in the eyes of God. The Bible is clear in its condemnation of adultery, false witness, theft, and murder, to name just a few. We are all sinners who deserve condemnation, and it is only because of the love and saving grace of Jesus Christ that we can be reconciled to our Father and have eternal life.
However, there is no organized activist movement that exists worldwide today to legalize and encourage theft, adultery, or lying. But there is a mobilized movement that challenges God’s truth on a daily basis with regard to homosexual behavior. That is why we are responding to yesterday’s “Day of Silence” to counter attempts to legitimize and promote homosexual behavior.
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- Who’s behind this? Aren’t they just some sort of religious group trying to force their views down our throats?
The “Day of Truth” is an official project of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a legal alliance dedicated to defending the right to hear and speak the Truth. ADF launched this project to ensure the free speech rights of Christian students to present an alternative viewpoint to those organizations that promote homosexual behavior. Neither ADF nor participants in the Day of Truth are trying to force their views on anyone, but are merely using our First Amendment rights to present another side to this issue.
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- Did you receive permission from the school? Is what you are doing legal?
While it is not necessary for students participating in the “Day of Truth” to ask permission of school officials, they are encouraged to do so. ADF has prepared a letter for participants to share with school officials informing them of the event.
Students do not abandon their constitutional rights to free speech when they enter public school. The United States Supreme Court has stated, “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”1 The court has also stated that a student’s free speech rights apply “when [they are] in the cafeteria, or on the playing field, or on the campus during authorized hours…”2
The Supreme Court has ruled that religious speech is protected by the First Amendment and may not be singled out for discrimination.3
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- Do your parents know you are doing this? Did they or your church put you up to this?
Day of Truth participants are strongly encouraged to notify their parents about their participation. Students are also encouraged to involve their church youth groups in this project. However, students participating in the project do so of their own volition and are not sponsored or directed by any church or parental group.
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- Aren’t you just a "copy-cat" – trying to do something similar to what the Gay-Straight Alliance has already done, only you are doing it because you don’t like them?
No. We are on the side of a serious social debate about the effects of the homosexual agenda on our society. Our motivation is to share Christ’s love and Truth with all, including those who have participated in the “Day of Silence.”
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- How do you know your “truth” is the absolute truth? Isn’t truth a relative term?
Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In over one hundred passages in the four gospel accounts of Christ’s life, He either begins with the phrase, “I tell you the truth…” or identifies Himself as the source of revealed truth. As Christians, this provides us with the assurance that Christ is the one and only source of Truth of God.
When there is no standard for truth - when truth means different things to different people - the consequences can be tragic. Most people would agree that the commandment from God, “Thou shalt not kill” is truth. But what happens if someone rejects that as truth, and their “truth” allows them to engage in the killing of innocent human beings? We are simply pointing to what our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, recognize: that there are absolute truths, and that such truth comes from our Creator, God.
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Footnotes: 1 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503, 506 (1968)
2 Id at 506.
3 See
Good News Club v. Milford Central School District, 533 U.S. 98, 108-10 (2001);
Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263, 269 (1981).