When the apostle Paul went into the city of Ephesus, through his witness, a significant number of idolaters there, by the grace of God, had a change of heart and become Christians. (Acts 19:11-20) Because this threatened the livelihood of most of the silversmiths (who made idols) they began spreading the word that there was a danger that "the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing." (Acts 11:27) A good number of people were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” So the city was filled with the confusion.." (Acts 11:29-30) Such confusion that most of those who gathered did not know why they had come together and there was practically a riot.
Today, in our current culture, where people worship at the altar of their idols of hyper sexuality, it often seems like the the same kind of inner rage is directed toward those who hold Christian convictions. Those who are blinded to the gospel proclamation of liberty and still want to be chained to their old masters, are threatened by the gospel ... that it will overthrow their gods so they are "enraged" and think that by shouting louder than others they can get the wider culture to believe the false message that our love for our fellow human beings is really hate and bigotry. But for several thousand years Christians & Jews have believed that the only place for sexual union is in a marriage covenant between one man and one woman for life. This is a matter of conscience and change cannot be forced or coerced by bullying, social pressure, contrary values of culture, politics, or law. This is who we are and what we believe and it is not going to change.