Don't Compromise on North Carolina Transgender Bathroom Bill
Compromise, compromise, compromise. Over the years, we've seen so much of it and heard so many calls for it by some on the "Right"; it's nauseating.
Compromise can sometimes be virtuous, but not on matters of primary import.
As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is surrender. For it is all give and no take."
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It was troubling lately to read that North Carolina's U.S. Senator, Richard Burr, called for changes to the measure commonly known as "the bathroom bill" or HB 2.
"It's now time," Burr told ABC 11, "for the General Assembly to take the opportunity that if we can roll this back, that it's probably in the best interests of North Carolina."
Burr said one of the portions of the measure he took issue with was the bathroom part.
Other media reports say a high-profile alliance is being formed to find a fix (a compromise) to HB 2. The team led by a Republican financier, a former state budget director, and a former Democratic Lieutenant Governor, as well as a former Republican Governor serving as honorary chair, would seek to end its impasse and alleviate the pressure from groups that threaten the state's economy.
One compromise, rumored to be circulated by a few in the halls of the General Assembly is to keep the "bathroom provision" in HB 2, but to allow cities and counties to adopt ordinances giving special protections to individuals based solely on their self-defined "sexual orientation" or "gender identity."
Recently, an email was copied to me and sent to certain North Carolina leaders, which I thought, succinctly spoke to such proposals. It read:
"I am distressed to read that you want to find a 'compromise' on HB 2.
"HB 2 is a very moderate, reasonable bill. There is nothing in it that needs to be watered down. Please do not help the 'Left' impose their perversions on the people of North Carolina.
"How is it that when conservatives enact legislation which reflects the will and the values of the people of North Carolina, our 'Conservative Friends' are so anxious to back down and compromise, but when the 'Left' tramples our Constitutions, our values, and the will of the people, that is the final word?
"Please do not compromise, and do not surrender. We do not need more Neville Chamberlins in the Culture War; we need more Winston Churchills."
Compromise on HB 2? Roll back HB 2?
So we should allow bathroom, locker room and shower policies that undermine common sense in the public schools and the workplace — laws that fundamentally expand the state's harmful interference in labor, housing, and commerce.
We should compromise with ordinances like the one in Charlotte that threatened its citizens with legal liability for alleged acts of "discrimination" based completely on perceived or subjective identities, and not some objective trait.
We should concede to dictates that cause severe difficulties for freedoms as necessary as free markets and contracts, free speech, and religious liberty.
Preposterous nonsense! Each of these egregious infringements to essential rights is what HB 2 currently prevents. Are we now to bargain and negotiate these entirely, or in some manner partly, away? And what shall we get in return for these incomparable and priceless rights?
I know — nothing but the ultimate and complete loss of them.
God forbid!
A desperate need in our day is conviction — a fixed and firm belief in the truth that no deprivations, clever arguments, or tempting offers can dent.
The truth is like a grand old sword that can split a mountain. But in this day and age, it does so little of its conquering work because those commissioned to use it keep it in its scabbard. The need is for stalwart leaders unafraid to employ it. Pull off the scabbard, no matter how wonderfully elaborate. Fling its fine sheath to hell, and then see how, in God's hands, its glorious double-edged blade will mow down the fiercest of enemies.
To invite the devil to help God is not only a futile exercise but a shameful one. The apostle Paul alluded to this eternal principle when he asked a compromised church in Corinth, "What communion has light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14).
In his letter to the church in Laodicea, Jesus spoke about people who were "neither cold nor hot," but lukewarm. Complete compromise marked them, and Jesus said they made him sick. "I will spew you out of my mouth" (Rev. 3:16), he said to them.
This country will be great again, and we shall see prosperity on every level when we are resolved never to seek the right except in God's way. Freedom shall have a new birth and flourish again when we no longer surrender what's clearly right in hopes of achieving something right.
God help the North Carolina General Assembly and our Governor to stay the course. There can be no give and take on the fundamentals.
"Any compromise on mere fundamentals is surrender. For it is all give and no take."
