The immediate consequences of saying no to the gay agenda are sometimes spectacular. Those who have experience debating homosexuals understand that if one exposes the dreadful realities of gay sexuality, the fallacies of gay arguments, or the public dangers of the gay agenda, homosexual opponents will sometimes throw temper tantrums and shout personal insults. Those who have never encountered this phenomenon have probably not debated many gays.

Should we walk on eggshells to avoid offending gays? No—but we need not use unnecessary roughness. Mere truth is very potent by itself, and we actually diminish the force of truth if we use words or actions that are more forceful that the circumstances require. Those who trust in the power of truth feel no need to shout.

When one speaks truth and says no to evil, the agendas of evil are exposed and resisted, and the momentum of evil is broken and thrown back in confusion. The tantrums, insults, and threats that might ensue are a manifest sign of the confusion and moral weakness of the wicked. We can claim victory only if we remain calm, reasonable, and resolute. “And in nothing be terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.” (Philippians 1:28) When we remain calm, respectful, rational, unafraid, and steadfast in our stand for the truth in the face of the threatenings and slanders of the wicked, it is a visible sign of victory for us. The misbehavior of the wicked is a shame to them.

Interestingly, our battle is not one of good versus evil, but of truth versus evil. Evil always concocts a lie that confutes truth. As Christians, we have authority to speak truth, but we have no grounds to claim to be good. The only goodness we have the right to claim is Christ's goodness imputed to our account and working within us, not as the reward of merit, but as an undeserved benefaction received by faith. In contrast, when we oppose evil, we have the right to say, “This is Truth, and Here I Stand,” to paraphrase the famous words of Luther