(LifeSiteNews) – Michigan lawmakers are on the verge of passing a radical pro-LGBT civil rights bill that would significantly threaten religious liberty in the state.
Michigan is currently led by pro-abortion Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who won a second term last fall by 10 percentage points. Michigan’s’ State House and State Senate are also run by Democrats, who have not had majorities in those chambers in 40 years and are clearly capitalizing on their newfound power.
The Michigan State Senate passed SB 4 last week by a 23-15 vote, with three Republicans joining with their Democrat colleagues in support of the measure. The bill, which doesn’t include exemptions for religious entities, adds “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of protected classes of persons who cannot be “discriminated” against in the Wolverine State.
The Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) has vigorously fought the proposal, which is set for a vote in the Michigan State House this week. Whitmer has said she would sign the bill.
“Every state that has amended its anti-discrimination law — 22 of them, and also the District of Columbia — has included protections for religious organizations. Unfortunately, Michigan appears to be going in an opposite and unprecedented direction,” the MCC pointed out in a statement published February 9.
The radical LGBT agenda infiltrating the Catholic Church is persecuting another brave priest, who now desperately needs your help to speak on his behalf.
Fr. Joachim Wernersbach has been SUSPENDED by his abbot of the Benedictine Tholey Abbey for preaching against gender ideology and the heterodox Synodal Way — pushed by Pope Francis and the German Synod of Bishops.
Fr. Wernersbach is also suspended from performing pastoral activists in the surrounding parish, and is being subject to “an ecclesiastical investigation.”
We need everyone to speak up for suspended priest Fr. Wernersbach — the LGBT agenda cannot claim another brave and devout priest.
SIGN and SHARE now.
Pro-life and pro-family priests around the world are being silenced and cancelled, while pro-LGBT activists get hand-written letters from the Pope, like Fr. James Martin.
Fr. Wernersbach simply reiterated Catholic teaching in his Christmas homily: "You hear about gender and transgender, transhumanism and reproductive health, wokeness and LGBTQ, diversity and identity. Of multiple genders and gender reassignment, plus this devastating new understanding of revelation from the Synodal Way," he said.
"My dear friends, even the terms are absolutely disturbing. They all have one thing in common: they lack beauty, they lack coherence, and they lack naturalness. They are not aligned, not in harmony with the inconceivably beautiful Divine Order."
For this denunciation of anti-Catholic trends, Fr. Wernersbach has been suspended by his own abbot. The entire homily has also been removed from YouTube.
The systematic persecution of pro-life and pro-family priests must end now.
Demand that Fr. Wernersbach be restored to full priestly ministry and demand that his superiors STOP shilling for the LGBT agenda!
Good and faithful priests are being systematically cancelled — but you can raise your voice to stop the attacks.
SIGN NOW before it’s too late.
Fr. Wernersbach needs your voice!
MORE INFORMATION:
German priest punished by superiors for preaching against gender ideology, Synodal Way
MCC Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy Tom Hickson said in a follow-up press release dated March 1 that the Michigan Senate “has signed off on creating a class of citizens against which discrimination and targeted litigation will be likely.”
Earlier this month, Democrats in both the House and Senate voted on a package of bills that would repeal the state’s 1931 ban on abortion, fulfilling a request Whitmer made during her State of the State address in January. A ballot measure that asked Michigan voters to add a pro-abortion amendment to the State’s Constitution passed with 57% support last fall.
If the bill ultimately becomes state law, it is not unreasonable to think Michigan’s lesbian Attorney General, Dana Nessel, who has repeatedly targeted religious Americans opposed to the LGBT agenda, will use it to further crack down on persons of faith in her state. Not only did she join a coalition of 17 other states to oppose Florida’s common sense parental rights bill last month, she demanded, in 2019, that Christian adoption agencies in Michigan provide services to same-sex couples or be cut off from state funding. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling scuttled her plan.
Despite the stranglehold Democrats have on the state legislature, pro-life Christians in Michigan have not given up fighting for the truth. GOP State Representative Jim DeSana, a Catholic father of eight, organized a eucharistic procession around the Capitol in December. DeSana also spoke at a rally outside a Michigan Pfizer plant with other conservative lawmakers after Project Veritas released a video showing a company executive talking about mutating strands of the COVID-19 virus in order to boost vaccine sales.
“This amendment to Michigan’s civil rights act threatens to disregard the sincerely held religious beliefs of millions of Michiganders,” DeSana told LifeSite. “Without protections for religious conscience, only expensive and protracted litigation will result.”
Democrats currently wield a slim 56-54 majority in the Michigan State House.
To contact members of that chamber ahead of this week’s vote, which may come as early as Tuesday, March 7, click here. The State Clerk’s Office can be contacted by dialing (517) 373-0135. Contact information for members of the Michigan State Senate is available here or by calling (517) 373-2400.