A tyrant then is not necessarily a sinner (we are all sinners) or even an unbeliever. A tyrant is one who defies not only God’s Law in the 10 commandments, but also the created order. In this, he destroys civil and social life and so is responsible for unrest in society as people are pitted against each other, left without freedom of movement or assembly, and have their livelihoods threatened. We were made to work, to worship, to live in relationships.

One of the challenges to understanding the times that we live in is related to our definitions. What exactly is tyranny? What exactly is persecution? How does God call us to live during times such as these?
There is a saying that is attributed to the Scottish Reformer John Knox: “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.” For those who know more of the history surrounding this reformer, images might be brought to mind of the fiery reformer preaching to Mary Queen of Scots, persecutor of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This man offered stout resistance to tyrants.
Most fundamentally, a tyrant stands opposed to the law of God as it is laid out in the 10 commandments and in the summary of the 10 commandments in the Law of Love. But while tyranny may end in a black and white opposition to the Word of God, it often begins in the grey. And so we must understand that tyranny is connected to something more fundamental to who we are as human beings before it stands in direct opposition to the law of God. Most fundamentally, tyranny is the fruit of unbelief that has blossomed in places of power.
In its initial expression, any form of tyranny stands opposed to God’s created order. In this, it also stands opposed to the law of God which is intended as a rule to order things again. There are kings and emperors in history who were not Christian and sinners who ruled well, relatively speaking. But how do we distinguish between those and other kings who have not ruled well, whether Christian or not? Johannes Althusius is a Calvinist lawyer in the 1600s who writes this: “So not every misdeed of a magistrate deprives him of his sceptre, but only that in which he, having accepted and then neglected the just rule of administration, acts contrary to the fundamentals and essence of human association, and destroys civil and social life….”
There are a couple important aspects to this quote from Althusius.
The first is the principle of equity. You can find this principle commanded throughout the book of Deuteronomy. The Bible often speaks of the call to rule with equity and points to Jesus who is the only King in history who has ruled with equity in the fullest sense of the word (Psalm 45/72). It is the just rule of administration that maintains this equity in the land and there is no partiality that is shown to one person or the other based on something outside of what is defined by God as evil or good.
The second principle that Althusius speaks of here is something that is fundamental to being human. There is an acting contrary to creational realities (ie natural law). The civil authority acts contrary to the fundamentals and essence of human association and in so doing destroys civil and social life.
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The God of the Bible sacrificed himself for their sins, but the god of gender wants them to sacrifice themselves for “gender.” The God of the Bible offers a path to happiness and flourishing, while the god of gender offers them a life of self-loathing and pain. Most importantly, the God of the Bible wants to forgive them, whereas the god of gender wants to harm them. That’s the kind of truth that can save a person from the clutches of false religion. 

As US embassies around the world wave the Pride flag, there is no denying that LGBTQ has become the American culture’s center of gravity. Twenty years ago, the main American religion was prosperity. Now it is the LGBTQ movement. 
How do pastors respond to the LGBTQ worldview? Or, more particularly, how do pastors shepherd their people to think rightly about the issues this movement raises? Here are five practical ways pastors can help their congregations navigate the LGBTQ culture:
1. Treat It like Another Religion
Twenty years ago, the LGBTQ movement was about individual autonomy. They trumpeted individual rights (such as visiting a partner in the hospital, sharing insurance plans, etc.). I fear that too many Christians—especially those who have been in ministry for a few decades—still perceive the LGBTQ world as being concerned with those issues. It isn’t. 
Today the LGBTQ movement has grown from concerns over individual rights to a full-on attack on Christianity. It is a rival religion. It has its own god (self-identity), its own language (that of critical theory and intersectionality), and its own priests (schoolteachers and university professors). There is a conversion rite (coming out), confirmation, and the taking on of a new identity. There is even penance for previous sins. The only thing missing is forgiveness. 
Pastor, ask yourself: How do I preach about other religions? Whatever your answer is, apply it to this issue.
Look, we make doctrinal distinctions in our preaching all the time. We often separate Catholicism from Christianity by highlighting justification by faith. We challenge the Mormons’ and Jehovah’s Witnesses’ views of Christ. We contrast the Trinity with Islam. These are likely normal practices in our preaching. 
The truth is, LGBTQ is more prominent in our culture and  worldview than those other religions. It occupies more cultural space.  But the LGBTQ religion is less about justification. Thus contrasting faith and works doesn’t adequately address this movement.
I encourage pastors in their preaching to draw attention to texts that highlight the nature of mankind and describe who we are and why we are here. Then contrast today’s identity culture with what the Bible says about identity. 
Of course, part of this new religion is sexual ethics. Pastors should be very clear about what the Bible says about sexual ethics, homosexuality, and gender. But the heart issue the LGBTQ worldview presents is that of identity—the question it raises is who makes man? Draw attention to that. 
2. Be Familiar with the Worldview this Religion Presents
Pastors can sometimes shy away from understanding the LGBTQ world because of how dark and sinful it is. Distance from its practices is a good and holy desire. 
But ignorance of the dominant worldview in our culture is not sustainable. A good place to go is Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Trueman’s book sheds light on the worldview behind the LGBTQ movement, helpfully showing its history and tracing how it came to occupy center stage in our world.
And here a point of contrast is in order. I watched a recent Christian evangelistic video from a ministry I love and saw how it critiqued the LGBTQ worldview. It treated it like it was a form of relativism or post-modernism. It went after it for its claim that “what is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.”
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Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom concludes by citing a poll showing that customer satisfaction and respect for the Disney brand have plunged from 77 percent to 51 percent in the last year alone. This confirms the simple truth, that a significant majority of parents do not want their children indoctrinated in gender ideology or any other social justice agenda by Disney. Entertainment critic Christian Toto states it plainly: political activism is “not what we want from Disney. We want entertainment.”

“You know, when I was a kid, everybody looked forward to Sunday evenings and Disney,” reminisces Dr. Ben Carson, former Trump administration Secretary of HUD, in a new documentary just released by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. Carson was referring, of course, to the long-running, family entertainment TV program created by that beloved American original, Walt Disney. It was a show and a brand that parents trusted, without reservation, to delight their children and leave their innocence untouched. Visits to Disneyland itself were a magical experience for all.
That was once upon a time. Today, Disney movies, shows, and parks are minefields of wokeness, which concerned parents navigate with trepidation to protect their kids from radical messaging and sexual grooming. “Walt Disney must be turning over in his grave,” Catholic League president and CEO Bill Donohue says in Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom, a 50-minute film which explores the Disney Company’s recent, rapid descent into gender madness. “Have we all lost our mind?”
Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom can be viewed for free at the Catholic League’s website, on YouTube, and at SalemNOW. It also will be available soon on Amazon Prime and on DVD. Executive produced by Donohue and filmmaker Jason Killian Meath, the CEO of Meath Television Media (he also wrote and directed the film), its all-star lineup of commentators includes Donohue himself; Ben Carson; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; New York Post columnist Miranda Devine; Media Research Center president Brent Bozell; Woke Inc. author Vivek Ramaswamy; Washington Times film critic and author Christian Toto; and Freedom Center founder and bestselling author David Horowitz. Mercedes Schlapp, Cuban-American political commentator and former White House Director of Communications under President Trump, hosts the movie.
“We did this documentary so that the public can learn how the most family-friendly institution in the country has departed from its ways,” Donohue writes on the Catholic League site. “Our culture is in crisis, and what is driving much of it is a callous disregard for the innocence of children. Too many activists, celebrities and educators are bent on indoctrinating young boys and girls with some very sick ideas. Regrettably, Disney is one of the most guilty players.”
Guilty, indeed. Brent Bozell goes so far in the film as to call it “the anti-family studio,” thanks to its embrace of the cancerous gender ideology that is subverting the nuclear family, inculcating a sexual consciousness in children as young as kindergartners, and sowing a wave of gender confusion and transgender madness in impressionable young teens.
Gender ideology is the tip of the spear today of cultural Marxism, which posits that children belong to “the collective” and that the nuclear family must be “abolished” in order to free women and children from its slavery. Donohue shoots this down in the film with his once-commonsense assertion that “the state does not own the children. The children belong to the parents.” David Horowitz rightly adds that such indoctrination is “an atrocity against children, and Disney has allowed itself to become part of it.”
Longtime Disney cast members and employees who spoke on camera complained that a radical LGBT agenda gradually began to make its presence felt in the happiest workplace on earth, with workshops and lessons in diversity and tolerance.
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