A key advisor for the United Nations suggested in a recent report that “discriminatory positions of prejudice” are not protected by religious freedom rights, a report one advocacy group said could have “exceptionally radical” implications for Bible-believing Christians. Costa Rican lawyer Victor Madrigal-Borloz, whose official title is “Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity” for the U.N., made the statement in a presentation to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
In his report to the council, Madrigal-Borloz blamed “religious communities” for “violence, discrimination and exclusion” toward gays, lesbians, bisexual and trans-identified people. After receiving testimony from various LGBT-identified people over the last six years, Madrigal-Borloz said he frequently came across situations in which someone who wished to “pursue happiness by embracing their sexual orientation or gender identity” was deterred by the prospect that “the religion in which they were born would consider them as sinful, or evil; as inherently immoral, or not worthy of transcendence.”
In one of the report’s more targeted allegations, Madrigal-Borloz referenced “dark corners where LGBT people are regarded as sinners,” an obvious reference to the biblical teaching of various Christian denominations. He also blamed such theology for aiding in the denial of the “right to equality” for LGBT-identified people. “Laws enacted with the aim of mandating standards of conduct purportedly demanded by interpretations of religious dogma effectively deny LGBT and other gender diverse persons the right to equality and, often, equal recognition under the law,” he wrote.
Madrigal-Borloz equated “hate speech” against LGBT-identified people with “positing LGBT individuals as a threat to the traditional family and interpreting religious doctrines to exclude and promote violence and discrimination against homosexuality and gender nonconformity.” Religious freedoms, he added, are not adequate legal protection for anyone who uses their beliefs for not only violence but also “denial of the human rights of LGBT persons.” “Violent and discriminatory positions of prejudice are beyond the international legal protections of religious or other beliefs,” he said. While the report does not establish any new U.N. policy or guidelines, the Office of Independent Expert — which works on a voluntary basis — acts as the “eyes and ears” of the body and presents recommendations.
What does all this mean for Christians and people of other faiths? Arielle Del Turco, the director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council called the report “staggering” and warned it could potentially lay the groundwork for more religious interference from the U.N. While purporting to address violence against LGBT-identified groups, Del Turco said the report does not speak to violence but rather “the failure of religious groups to affirm LGBT identity or behavior.” “So by the U.N. independent expert making this report and supposedly trying to find a way for LGBT rights and religious freedom to coexist, we see even that at the very core of the report is a huge elevation for LGBT rights,” she stated.
Another troubling issue, Del Turco said, is that with this report, the U.N. appears to be acting as a theological or ideological authority for the religions of the world. “Essentially, this U.N. expert is telling religious groups that we ourselves are interpreting our own religions incorrectly, and actually, our religions probably do affirm some of these LGBT behaviors, do affirm gender ideology,” she said. “That is exceptionally radical.”
Del Turco said what is at stake is not merely religious freedom, but freedom of speech. She pointed to one section of the report: “hate speech and incitement,” which includes a discussion on how religious communities discuss LGBT topics. “For example, when Christian communities talk about sin, according to their reading of the Bible, that’s a problem to these LGBT activists who are now running the United Nations,” she said.
Biblical Connections: In John 15:18, Jesus said “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.”
PRAY: Pray that these extremists in the leadership of the UN will stop this madness and allow for the truth of the Bible.