Under the banner of curtailing workplace discrimination against homosexuals, lesbians and transgendered people, President Obama has issued an executive order that concerns all federal contractors and subcontractors. The order states that all companies that do business with the federal government, and companies who help them complete that work, will have to put aside religious and other principles with regard to the employment of people who practice open homosexual and transgendered behavior. This will go into effect next year.

There is no exemption for religiously affiliated contractors other than a very limited protection put in place during the Bush Administration

Businesses will be able to consider sexual orientation and behavior and to hire, promote and fire anyone they like in ministerial positions. For non-religious posts contractors can consider religion in hiring practices, but not sexual orientation or gender identity.

Immediately following the White House announcement of this executive order, the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg stated: “This level of coercion is nothing less than viewpoint blackmail that bullies into silence every contractor and subcontractor who has moral objections to homosexual behavior.” He continued, “People with deeply held convictions regarding the morality of certain types of behavior should not be bound by the dictates of President Obama’s agenda.”

The Left has been trying to pass a bill with the Orwellian title, the Employment Non-discrimination Act — ENDA — for two decades. They haven’t succeeded. But this order ignores Congress and goes a long way toward enacting ENDA by presidential fiat. After the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, it’s clear the Supreme Court, albeit narrowly, will still protect the religious liberty of employers. This did not stop this Administration from forcing companies with religious owners to disregard their convictions about the morality of certain types of behavior.

A senior administration official noted that the Hobby Lobby decision did not involve federal contracts, saying, “We were comfortable moving forward with this executive order in light of Hobby Lobby.” In other words, since the Hobby Lobby decision protected the religious liberties of a narrow subset of companies, the White House was determined to force this agenda on another big chunk of employers, federal contractors.

Folks, it’s becoming clearer by the week: Christians, with their biblical morality and bothersome tendency to insist on adhering to it in all aspects of their lives, are simply in the Left’s way as it tries to make sweeping changes.

The secular Left wants no accommodation for the religious views of ordinary Americans. This particular executive action is another example of the Left’s bullying of Christians, trying to force their worldview out of the workplace and the culture and confine it to the pews.

So what do we do? Matt Barber law professor and cultural commentator wrote at WND.com, “For 2000 years, whenever such conflicts have arisen, Christians have placed the laws of God above the laws of men.”

The question is will Christians stand? We must.