După toate ventilările noastre din biserici, de pe bloguri și de pe forumurile de discuții, oricât de binevenite au fost ele, trebuie să recunoaștem că larma protestelor noastre n-a ajuns încă acolo unde trebuie. Cum spun americanii, am predicat la cor și corul a fost de acord cu noi …

Senatorii, congresmenii și juriștii Americii nu ne frecventează bisericile și nu înțeleg românește ca să priceapă ceea ce scriem noi prin bloguri și pe forumurisau ceea ce spunem noi de la amvoanele bisericilor noastre. Lor trebuie să le vorbim acolo unde sunt ei, la adresele lor oficiale și pe limba lor, adică pe limba articolelor juridice.

Mă bucur acum să vă semnalez inițiativa lui Eusebiu Rusu, președintele nostru la Romanian Baptist Association, care a luat legătura cu avocatul creștin Horațiu Miheț, binecunoscut pentru sprijinul legal acordat creștinilor care sunt nedreptățiți în America, și, împreună, au pus la cale documentul pe care vi-l prezint acum și vouă.

Eusebiu este ardelean. El nu s-a grăbit și nici nu s-a pripit, ci a lucrat molcom, cu chibzuința și înțelepciunea lucrului temeinic făcut. Prin Horațiu, Eusebiu a aflat că există mulți oameni de mare calibru în administrația americană care pun la cale o întâmpinare legală care să anuleze decizia strâmbă luată de Curtea Supremă, în problema redefinirii familiei.

Când lucrarea a fost gata, Eusebiu a luat legătura cu Cornel Avram, păstorul pentecostal de la ,,Happy Valey“, din Phoenix, Arizona și a obținut susținerea Uniunii Pentecostale. Apoi s-a dus la frații ucrainieni și le-a oferit ocazia să semneze alături de noi acest document de protest. Eusebiu l-a arătat și liderilor din comunități americane și sperăm ca și ei să ni se alăture. Cred că este un document bun, făcut bine și direcționat exact acolo unde trebuie. Fiecare senator american îl va primi în căsuța lui poștală.

Eusebiu și Horațiu, iată două nume cu rezonanță … remarcabilă printre români, în această toamnă.

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The Honorable Senator ___________________

09/02/2015

Dear Senator __________________:

We are writing on behalf of the Romanian Baptist Association of the United States and Canada, Romanian Pentecostal Union of United States and Canada and Alliance of Slavic Baptist Association Of North America to urge you to vote in favor of the First Amendment Defense Act (“FADA”), and to do everything within your power to ensure that the religious freedom and conscience rights of all Americans are protected.

RBA, RPU and ASBA of USA and Canada are associations of Romanian and Ukrainian-speaking Baptist and Pentecostal churches, representing over 230 congregations and 50,000 individual congregants. A large number of our members endured great persecution for their religious beliefs under oppressive communist regime in Romania and Ukraine. Many of us were even beaten and imprisoned because we chose to obey God and our conscience rather than an evil regime.

America was always a beacon of freedom for us, and we came to this great land in search of freedom and a better life. Many of us risked life and limb to get to this Promised Land, and all of us left behind our loved ones and our earthly possessions so that we could be free. Having found the freedom here to live out our faith, we have grown to love America as our adoptive nation. We join our American brothers and sisters in proclaiming that “This land is our land,” and we are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure that America remains the “Land of the Free” for future generations.

The issue of human sexuality has become a very complex and multifaceted issue in our generation. Before we address some of our concerns regarding recent decisions on this topic, we want to make sure there is a clear understanding of our values and beliefs. Our Christian faith stands for loving all people, regardless of their background, belief, color of the skin. The foundation of our faith, the Holy Bible, is also the inspiration of the Constitution of Unites States of America. Therefore, we believe that “all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Because of our faith, our issue at hand has less to do with a specific group of people, nothing to do with any individual’s right to liberty and everything to do with our core values as Christians.

With this in mind, we are deeply troubled by the Supreme Court’s June 26, 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, where five unelected and unaccountable lawyers purported to define a fundamental right to same-sex “marriage” within the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and to force this new right upon all Americans. The Obergefell decision is a profound attack and encroachment upon the United States Constitution, the rule of law and the right to self-governance that we hold so dear, and that countless Americans have shed their precious blood to protect. Logic, reason, the created order, and the Law of Nature and Nature’s God all dictate the obvious and undeniable fact that true and authentic marriage has always been – and will always remain – the union of one man and one woman. Even if they happen to be sitting justices of the Supreme Court, five lawyers have no more power to redefine Marriage than they do to redefine the law of gravity.

We are therefore firm in our belief that the Obergefell decision is immoral, illegitimate and unconstitutional. Our reading of the plain Truth of Scripture compels us to remain even firmer in our belief that Marriage is not – and can never be – the union of two people of the same sex. Our understanding of God’s Truth with respect to Marriage is fundamental to and inseparable from our religious beliefs, our identity, and our conscience. We cannot violate or abandon our conviction with respect to Marriage any more than we can abandon who we are as Christians or as Americans of Romanian descent.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. correctly observed from a Birmingham jail that “a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.” He taught us that we have a duty of the highest moral order to resist and disobey unjust laws, just as we have a duty to obey just laws. His teaching is fully in line with the exhortation of Jesus Christ that we must render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and render to God that which is God’s.

Marriage is God’s, and we will never render to Caesar that which is God’s. Our Pastors will never alter the Truth of Scripture that they preach from our pulpits. Our churches will never perform or accept homosexual unions. Our congregants will never participate in same-sex “marriages,” either individually or through the businesses they have worked hard to build. We will steadfastly preach that God hates all sin, including homosexuality, but that out of His great love for humanity He gave His only begotten Son so that all sin could be forgiven for all who repent and trust in Him.

We earnestly pray that the day will never come when God-fearing Christians in the Land of the Free will be forced to choose between following their religious convictions and conscience or going to jail. We know what that grim choice looks like. Though we are prepared to follow God no matter what the cost, we will do everything in our power to ensure that no American will be faced with that choice.

This is why we urge you to vote in favor of the First Amendment Defense Act (S 1598 / H.R. 2802), introduced by Senator Mike Lee and Representative Raul Labrador on June 17, 2015. This law is urgently needed to protect people of faith whose deeply held religious convictions preclude them from recognizing or participating in same-sex “marriages.” We urge you to champion this measure and to do all that you can to ensure its passage. We are eagerly following the course of this legislation in committees, and will report to our congregations and members how their elected representatives voted. We hope that you will stand with us on the side of Freedom.

Thank you for your service to our Nation.

Sincerely,

Rev. Eusebiu Rusu
President, Romanian Baptist Association of the United States and Canada

Rev. Cornel Avram
President, Romanian Pentecostal Union of United States and Canada

Rev. Aleksandr K. Sipco
President, Alliance of Slavic Baptist Association of North America

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