Persecution of American Christians

[ochotseat]

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS GROWING IN THE UNITED STATES
by Thomas Horn

More Christians died for their faith in the twentieth century than at any other time in history, says Christian Solidarity International. Global reports indicate that over 150,000 Christians were martyred last year, chiefly outside of the United States. However, statistics are changing: persecution of Christians is on the increase in the United States. What's happening to bring about this change?

According to some experts a pattern is emerging reminiscent of Jewish persecution in post war Germany. "Isolation of, and discrimination against Christians is growing almost geometrically" says Don McAlvany in The Midnight Herald. "This is the way it started in Germany against the Jews. As they became more isolated and marginalized by the Nazi propaganda machine, as popular hatred and prejudice against the Jews increased among the German people, wholesale persecution followed. Could this be where the growing anti-Christian consensus in America is taking us?"

Tolerance of anti-Christian attitudes in the United States is escalating. Recently, a woman in Houston, Texas was ordered by local police to stop handing out gospel tracts to children who knocked on her door during Halloween. Officers informed her that such activity is illegal (not true), and that she would be arrested if she continued. In Madison, Wisconsin, the Freedom from Religion Foundation distributes anti-Christian pamphlets to public school children entitled, "We Can Be Good Without God." The entertainment industry and syndicated media increasingly vilify Christians as sewer rats, vultures, and simple-minded social ingrates. The FBI and the Clinton White House brand fundamentalist Christian groups as hate mongers and potential terrorists. The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago warns that plans by Southern Baptists to hold a convention in the Windy City next year might foment "hate crimes" against minorities, causing some Christians to fear that speaking openly about their religious beliefs will soon be considered a crime. All this, while Christianity itself is often a target of hate-crime violence. We remember the students at Columbine, and the United Methodist minister who was fatally beaten and burned in a remote part of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to name a few of the recent examples of interpersonal violence aimed at believers.

THE REAL ENEMY

Manly P. Hall once wrote, "They are the invisible powers behind the thrones of earth, and men are but marionettes, dancing while the invisible ones pull the strings." Satan's string pullers have patiently manipulated unregenerate architects of American society for over five decades, networking both visible and invisible principalities to discredit Christian causes. Indicators reveal the propaganda blame-game against western believers is working.

Even a casual observance of the facts reveals growing isolation of Christians as a people group, especially school age believers. Faculty and peer efforts to convince public school children that America was not founded on Christian ideals, and that our forefathers actually wanted a secular society, permeates public school interaction. History revisionists labor to eliminate any and all contradictory historical evidence from public school curriculum, and mockingly stereotype Christians as unenlightened fringe.

A few years ago, Dr. Paul Vitz, then professor of psychology at New York University, worked with a committee that examined sixty social studies and history textbooks used in public schools across the United States. The committee was amazed to find that almost every reference to the Christian influence of early America was systematically removed. Their conclusion: the writers of the commonly used textbooks exhibited paranoia of the Christian religion and intentionally censored Christianity's positive role in American history.

Intolerant, Christ-hating censors of religious expression target the media and public school curriculum because this is the best place, outside of the churches and families, to indoctrinate children and thus manipulate the future political and cultural landscape. If one succeeds in separating Godly principles from public education and the media, they deny citizens the knowledge of good and keep them from embracing the laws of God. To that extent, they are pawns of evil and subvert and destroy both the message and the messengers of righteousness.

REAPING THE WHIRLWIND

In an article entitled "Our Violent Kids," Time Magazine reported "an upsurge in the most violent types of crimes by teens." Through television, "by the age of 16, the typical child has witnessed an estimated 200,000 acts of violence, including 33,000 murders," the article went on to say.

A major study by Dr. Brandon Centerwell of the University of Washington's Department of Epidemiology concludes that "exposure to television" is related to approximately one-half of the homicides committed in the United States, or approximately 10,000 homicides annually. Exposure to television and other forms of propaganda is also related to a majority of rapes, assaults, and acts of violence according to the study.

Censoring the Christian model and denigrating biblical values has resulted in a generation where every day in the United States:

· 437 children are arrested for drinking or drunk driving
· 211 children are arrested for drug abuse
· 1,629 children are in adult jails
· 30 children are wounded by guns
· 10 children are killed by guns
· 135,000 children bring a gun to school

Social scientists claim this generation's inability to define absolutes, and a growing pattern of anti-Christian behavior, may ultimately result in the collapse of the American superstructure, as situation ethics, AIDS and other forms of sexually transmitted diseases, the redefining of the family unit, and other abandonments of biblical standards of morality come to their dangerous and natural conclusion.

WILL WE EVER LEARN?

History students compare the French Revolution and the horror of persecution and torture under Robespierre, with the Revolutionary War in America that resulted in unprecedented cultural and monetary success. While citizens in America rejoiced in newfound religious liberty and freedom, more than twenty thousand people died in Paris's guillotines. The years to follow in France brought a reign of terror leading up to totalitarianism and Napoleon.

Why were the American and French Revolutions followed by such contrasting societal conclusions? The difference was that the American Revolution was fought on Christian principles, while the French Revolution was anti-God. The forces behind the French Revolution were out to eliminate Christianity as the enemy of France. A statue of a nude woman was placed on the altar of the church in Notre Dame, and the God of the Bible was proclaimed dead. Soon afterward, the French government collapsed.

Is the Fabian process of gradualism taking modern America down a similar path? Perhaps. For the past five decades Americans have allowed the liberal Left to defend the use of public funds for pornography, explicit sex education, and anti-Christian curricula. The Hollywood elite have denigrated Christian values and mocked the virtues of purity. The highest courts in the land have ruled with contemptuous decree against God, against prayer, and against the free expression of religion. Is it any wonder we have become the most profane and violent society in the industrialized
world?

JUST THINK OF IT

America's Founding Fathers understood that all government is based on either a theistic or anti-theistic foundation. Adepts of history like George Washington understood that countries whose systems of government embrace national anti-theistic views ultimately come to ruin. Strong religious convictions therefore played a role in the development of the United States, which was established on Christian principles and open to all people of good will. In 1892 this was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. After exhaustive deliberation, the Court said, "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. [It is] impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."

Imagine that. A nation whose laws and institutions are based on the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. Why, such a place would surely become the leader in education, invention, and the arts. Such a place would probably become a haven of religious liberty for more types and religions of people than has ever existed anywhere or at any time on earth. Instead of religious persecution and intolerance, such a place would offer hope and opportunity to the huddled masses of the earth.

[Dan]

Every where a Christian goes he will face tribulation. It's a fact of life, however, just as Christ said, a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own town. So our homes are where we will find the most persecution, and we should fight it to the last breath.

But it is inevitable, all these things must happen for the end to come, it's only a matter of time. The only thing we can do is resist it and never back down, never be swayed, and always look up to Christ.

Persecution is getting worse, and there's not much we can do about it. We COULD use our resources to get our voices heard, but it would be better to use those resources to spread the gospel to those willing to listen and to better the lives of the needy. Heardened hearts take a second seat to the meek and righteous.

[ochotseat]

Every where a Christian goes he will face tribulation. It's a fact of life, however, just as Christ said, a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own town. So our homes are where we will find the most persecution, and we should fight it to the last breath.

But it is inevitable, all these things must happen for the end to come, it's only a matter of time. The only thing we can do is resist it and never back down, never be swayed, and always look up to Christ.

Persecution is getting worse, and there's not much we can do about it. We COULD use our resources to get our voices heard, but it would be better to use those resources to spread the gospel to those willing to listen and to better the lives of the needy. Heardened hearts take a second seat to the meek and righteous.

What's even sadder is that we may be being persecuted in a country that is supposedly almost 90% Christian, not in a country that bans religion or permits only one type of faith to be practiced.

[Dan]

Every where a Christian goes he will face tribulation. It's a fact of life, however, just as Christ said, a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own town. So our homes are where we will find the most persecution, and we should fight it to the last breath.

But it is inevitable, all these things must happen for the end to come, it's only a matter of time. The only thing we can do is resist it and never back down, never be swayed, and always look up to Christ.

Persecution is getting worse, and there's not much we can do about it. We COULD use our resources to get our voices heard, but it would be better to use those resources to spread the gospel to those willing to listen and to better the lives of the needy. Heardened hearts take a second seat to the meek and righteous.

What's even sadder is that we may be being persecuted in a country that is supposedly almost 90% Christian, not in a country that bans religion or permits only one type of faith to be practiced.

Last figure I checked it was 80%, however 50% of the country supports abortion, so I think it's safe to say most 'Christians' are fallacious in what they say. After accounting for pro-lifers from other groups, which should account for a healthy portion of the concensus, the majority of chrsitians are actually posers.

So we're not only being persecuted, we're also being mixed in with a crowd of liars that tarnish the image of Christ. Their punishment will be far greater than the worst pagan sinner for what they have done.

[ochotseat]

Last figure I checked it was 80%,

According to the Barna surveys, as of 2002 up to 85 percent of Americans claimed to be Christian. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/kansasci ... 190.htm?1c

however 50% of the country supports abortion, so I think it's safe to say most 'Christians' are fallacious in what they say.

Why do you believe that one cannot be a Christian if he or she supports a certain side on an issue?

[Dan]

Last figure I checked it was 80%,

According to the Barna surveys, as of 2002 up to 85 percent of Americans claimed to be Christian. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/kansasci ... 190.htm?1c

however 50% of the country supports abortion, so I think it's safe to say most 'Christians' are fallacious in what they say.

Why do you believe that one cannot be a Christian if he or she supports a certain side on an issue?

Because abortion is contrary to the sanctity of life and the will of God. It is tampering with what He instates, that is, life, and psalms reveals to us that the Lord knew us in the womb and so any destruction of life within the womb is destroying a being who has been acknowledged by the Lord. Any being acknowledged by God as one of His children is a human being, a person, and so, has the fully rights of a person who is born.

[ochotseat]

Because abortion is contrary to the sanctity of life and the will of God. It is tampering with what He instates, that is, life, and psalms reveals to us that the Lord knew us in the womb and so any destruction of life within the womb is destroying a being who has been acknowledged by the Lord. Any being acknowledged by God as one of His children is a human being, a person, and so, has the fully rights of a person who is born.

If someone supports abortion, homosexual marriage, drug legalization, welfare, prayer ban in schools and workplaces, etc. but still believes in the Trinity, is he or she not still a Christian? They may need to be encouraged to see the light on those issues, but they're still Christians are they not?

[Dan]

If someone supports abortion, homosexual marriage, drug legalization, welfare, prayer ban in schools and workplaces, etc. but still believes in the Trinity, is he or she not still a Christian? They may need to be encouraged to see the light on those issues, but they're still Christians are they not?

You cannot believe in Christ and the Holy Spirit sincerely without having the Holy Spirit dwell within you, and if the Holy Spirit is within you, the laws of God come naturally, and so homosexual marriage,abortion, and drugs are inherently contrary to the Christian's beliefs. The other stuff isn'ty nescessarily against Christ.

[ochotseat]

You cannot believe in Christ and the Holy Spirit sincerely without having the Holy Spirit dwell within you, and if the Holy Spirit is within you, the laws of God come naturally, and so homosexual marriage,abortion, and drugs are inherently contrary to the Christian's beliefs. The other stuff isn'ty nescessarily against Christ.

But one can argue that forbidding prayer in schools or workplaces is going against Christ's message to spread the Gospel. I don't think God would revoke someone's Christianity if he or she champions the wrong cause.

[Dan]

But one can argue that forbidding prayer in schools or workplaces is going against Christ's message to spread the Gospel. I don't think God would revoke someone's Christianity if he or she champions the wrong cause.

Prayer is a personal thing, Jesus condemns public prayer in the beatitudes. It's not something that is required for us to believe in, personally, if I want to pray in school, no one's gonna stop me. Don't care if I get a detention, more time to pray

But then theres the first amendment which is very iffy. Is not allowing prayer in school respecting a religious establishment? Government has to be indifferent towards all philosophies and religions.

[ochotseat]

Prayer is a personal thing, Jesus condemns public prayer in the beatitudes. It's not something that is required for us to believe in, personally, if I want to pray in school, no one's gonna stop me. Don't care if I get a detention, more time to pray

But then theres the first amendment which is very iffy. Is not allowing prayer in school respecting a religious establishment? Government has to be indifferent towards all philosophies and religions.

Under the Constitution, we as Americans have freedom of religion. In spite of the fact that the majority of Americans support voluntary prayer in schools, many liberals oppose this. Did you know that students are not allowed to pray or read the Bible in public schools even during free time or before football games? Public employees are outlawed from doing the same thing. The Pledge of Allegiance isn't even compulsory anymore. Towns and cities that have voted to erect Christmas decorations, such as the baby Jesus in a manger, have been sued and even prevented from doing so. These measures violate our First Amendment.

[ochotseat]

Here's a thought-provoking article on the topic:

April 28, 2005
Scary Stuff

There's a real venom on the Left against conservative Christians.
Harper's Magazine's May cover stories about “The Christian Right's War On America,” frightened me, although not the way Harper's meant them to. I fear these stories could mark the beginning of a systematic campaign of hatred directed at traditional Christians. Whether this is what Harper's intends, I cannot say. But regardless of the intention, the effect seems clear.

The phrase “campaign of hatred” is a strong one, and I worry about amplifying an already dangerous dynamic of recrimination on both sides of the culture wars. I don't doubt that conservatives, Christian and otherwise, are sometimes guilty of rhetorical excess. Yet despite what we've been told, the most extreme political rhetoric of our day is being directed against traditional Christians by the left.

It's been said that James Dobson overstepped legitimate bounds when he compared activist judges to the Ku Klux Klan. Yes, that was an ill-considered remark. I hope and expect it will not be repeated. But Dobson made that comparison extemporaneously and in passing. If that misstep was such a problem, what are we to make of a cover story in Harper's that systematically identifies conservative Christianity with fascism? According to Harper's, conservative Christians are making “war on America.” Can you imagine the reaction to a cover story about a “war on America” by blacks, gays, Hispanics, or Jews? Then there's Frank Rich's April 24 New York Times op-ed comparing conservative Christians to George Wallace, segregationists, and lynch mobs.

These comparisons are both inflammatory and mistaken. Made in the name of opposing hatred, they license hatred. It was disturbing enough during the election when even the most respectable spokesmen on the left proudly proclaimed their hatred of president Bush. Out of that hatred flowed pervasive, if low-level, violence. I fear that Bush hatred is now being channeled into hatred of Christian conservatives. The process began after the election and is steadily growing worse. This hatred of conservative Christians isn't new, but it is being fanned to a fever pitch.

Chris Hedges, who wrote one of the Harper's cover pieces, is a former reporter for the New York Times and a popular author among those who oppose the Iraq war. Hedges's article will be noticed on the Left. I fear it will set the tone for a powerful new anti-Christian rhetoric. The article's entitled “Feeling the Hate with the National Religious Broadcasters.” If you still don't get it, notice the picture juxtaposing a cross with an attack dog. Of course, reducing America's most popular Christian broadcasters to a hate group is itself a way of inviting hatred.

Hedges is worried about extreme Christian theocrats called “Dominionists.” He's got little to say about who these Dominionists are, and he qualifies his vague characterizations by noting in passing that not all Dominionists would accept the label or admit their views publicly. That little move allows Hedges to paint a highly questionable picture of a virtually faceless and nameless “Dominionist” Christian mass. Hedges seems to be worried that the United States is just a few short steps away from having apostasy, blasphemy, sodomy, and witchcraft declared capital crimes. Compare this liberal fantasy of imminent theocracy to the reality of Lawrence v. Texas and Roper v. Simmons (the Supreme Court decision that appealed to European precedents to overturn capital punishment for juveniles).

Both of these decisions relied on the existence of a supposed national consensus on behalf of social liberalism. In conjuring up that false consensus, the Court treated conservative Christians as effectively nonexistent. That is the reality of where the law is, and where it is headed. It is completely unsurprising that after a long train of such decisions, conservative Christians have decided they're tired of being trampled on by the courts. The reality we face is judicially imposed same-sex marriage in opposition to the clearly expressed wishes of the American people. Yet to cover its imperial judicial agenda, the Left is now concocting nonsensical fantasies of theocratically imposed capital punishment for witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft is back. Only now traditional Christians have been cast in the role of devious enemies who need to be ferreted out by society's defenders.

Hedges invokes the warnings of his old Harvard professor against “Christian fascists.” Supposedly, Christians carrying crosses and chanting the Pledge of Allegiance are the new Hitlers. The Left is loathe to treat Islamic terrorists as moral reprobates, but when it comes to conservative Christians, Hedges calls on his fellow liberals to renounce their relativist scruples and acknowledge “the power and allure of evil.”

Hedges needn't worry. For a very long time now, secular liberals have treated conservative Christians as the modern embodiment of evil, the one group you're allowed to openly hate. Although barely noticed by the rest of us, this poison has been floating through our political system for decades. Traditional Christians are tired of it, and I don't blame them. That doesn't justify rhetorical excess from either side. But the fact of the matter is that the Left's rhetorical attacks on conservative Christians have long been more extreme, more widely disseminated, and more politically effective than whatever the Christians have been hurling back. And now that their long ostracism by the media has finally forced conservative Christians to demand redress, the Left has abandoned all rhetorical restraint.

Of course, Harper's has every right to accuse conservative Christians of making war on America, to treat them as a hate group, to warn us that conservative Christians are the new fascists, and to invite us to battle their supposedly Hitler-like evil. Certainly it would be folly to try to control this kind of anti-religious rhetoric legislatively. But I do believe the Harper's attack on traditional Christians is dangerous, unfair, and extreme — far more so than Dobson's rhetorical slip. The way to handle the Harper's matter is to expose it and condemn it. Or is that sort of public complaint reserved for Dobson alone?

Meanwhile, as Harper's levels vicious attacks on conservative Christians, the California assembly has passed a bill designed to prevent politicians from using “anti-gay rhetoric” in their political campaigns. Opposition to same-sex marriage itself is considered by many to be “anti-gay.” So has public opposition to same-sex marriage been legislatively banned? As a secular American, I don't personally see homosexuality as sinful. Like many Americans, I welcome the increased social tolerance for homosexuality we've seen since the 1950s. Yet it's outrageous to ban political speech by Christians who do sincerely understand homosexuality to be a sin.

Along with the move toward same-sex marriage in Scandinavia and Canada, we've seen systematic efforts to criminalize and silence expressions of the traditional Christian understanding of homosexuality. We've been told that the American tradition of free speech will prevent that sort of abuse here. Yet now, California's battle for same-sex marriage is calling forth legislation that takes us way too far down the path toward banning the expression of traditional Christian views. While Harper's is spinning out fantasies of a Christian theocracy, the California state legislature gives us the reality of a secular autocracy.

The companion piece to the Hedges article in Harper's is a long report by Jeffrey Sharlet on Christian conservatives in Colorado. Sharlet notes the conviction of these Christians that they're being turned into “outcasts in their own land.” He treats the notion that traditional Christians need to flee the urban centers of Blue America as a paranoid fantasy. Well, California's latest attempt to control political speech shows the fears are real. And what happens to traditional Christians who refuse to flee the cities? King's College, a quality Christian school that's decided to move from the countryside to the heart of New York City, is about to be destroyed by the New York State Board of Regents. It's hard to see in this move anything other than anti-Christian bias.

Conservative Christians have good reason to fear cultural ostracism. The mere expression of their core religious views is being legislated against. The courts have banned traditional morality as a basis for law and have turned instead to secular Europe for guidance. Traditional Christians can't even set up a college in New York City. And now Harper's is calling them evil fascists. Yes, conservative Christians have the ear of the president and of the Republican leadership — you bet they do. Given the way they're being treated in the culture at large, they'd be fools not to protect themselves by turning to politics.

Yet traditional Christians are playing defense, not offense. Harper's speaks of a “new militant Christianity.” But if Christians are increasingly bold and political, they've been forced into that mode by 40 years of revolutionary social reforms. David Brooks has already explained how Roe v. Wade unnecessarily polarized the country, making it impossible for religious conservatives to have a voice in ordinary political give and take. We're still paying the price for that liberal judicial arrogance.

Now judicial imposition of same-sex marriage has poured fuel on the fire. When Frank Rich compares conservative Christians to segregationist bigots, when Chris Hedges compares conservative Christians to evil fascist supporters of Hitler, its the Christian understanding of homosexuality that's driving the wild rhetoric. None of the American Founders would have approved of same-sex marriage, yet suddenly we're expected to equate opposition to gay marriage with Hitler's genocidal persecutions.

Last Sunday's New York Times gave us a clear explanation of the Catholic Church's understanding of sexuality. The Catholic position rests on the idea that there is a special tie between marriage, motherhood, and sexuality. Now there's room to differ on the nature and extent of the links between parenthood, marriage, and sexuality. Traditional Catholics will see the matter differently from traditional Protestants, who in turn will see things differently from secular social conservatives. Whatever your view on how marriage, sexuality, and parenthood ought to be related, there can be little doubt that important social consequences will follow — and have followed — from how we handle these issues. We can argue about whether same-sex marriage will strengthen or weaken the family, but the debate itself is, or ought to be, necessary and legitimate.

Yet to much of the mainstream media, the complicated question of how society should structure the relationship between sexuality and the family has been reduced to an all-or-nothing choice between bigotry and freedom. The overreach of this sort of intolerant secular liberalism is the real source of our cultural battles. The drive for same-sex marriage has been every bit as much of a political disaster for this country as the ill-conceived conflict over abortion. The mistake was to frame the debate as a fight against bigotry instead of as a tough decision about how to structure our most fundamental social institution. On same-sex marriage, the Left took the easy way out — not only using the courts to make an end-run around the public, but deliberately framing the issue in a way designed to silence and stigmatize all opposition.

Now we see the results of this terrible decision. Traditional Christians are openly excoriated in the mainstream press as evil, fascist, segregationist bigots. Their political speech is placed under legislative threat. Their institutions of higher education are attacked and destroyed. Naturally, America's traditional Christians are fighting back. They've turned to the political process in hopes of securing for themselves a space in which to exist. Weary of being the butt of hatred by those who proclaim tolerance, conservative Christians are complaining, with justice, about the all-too-successful attempts to exclude them from society.

If “Dominionists” try to force all Americans to pay church tithes, or call for the execution of blasphemers and witches, I will oppose them. But that is not the danger we face. The real danger is that a growing campaign of hatred against traditional Christians by secular liberals will deepen an already dangerous conflict. The solution is to continue our debates, but to change their framing. Conservative Christians cannot stop complaining of exclusion and prejudice until cultural liberals pare back their own excesses. Let's stop treating honest differences on same-sex marriage as simple bigotry. Let's stop using the courts as a way around democratic decision-making. Let's stop trying to criminalize religious expression. Let's allow Christians to establish their own institutions of higher learning. And let's stop calling traditional Christians fascists. It would be nice if the folks complaining about “Justice Sunday” addressed these issues as well.

[j316]

When the patient and forbearing christian majority of this country has had enough and stands up, which we are starting to do, the minority that remains will have no problem recognizing their real position.

[ochotseat]

When the patient and forbearing christian majority of this country has had enough and stands up, which we are starting to do, the minority that remains will have no problem recognizing their real position.

You got it.