By Michael Snyder ~ July 25th, 2013
In the United States today, there are very
few words that provoke as much outrage as the name of Jesus. It is
being banned from graduation ceremonies, chaplains all over America are
being forbidden from using His name in their prayers, and many school
officials all over the nation have become absolutely fanatical about
eliminating every trace of Christian expression from their schools. One
elementary school in North Carolina even ordered a little six-year-old
girl to remove the word God from a poem that she had written to honor
her grandfathers. Political correctness is spreading like a cancer in
this country, and our freedom of religion is rapidly being transformed
into a guarantee of freedom from religion for those that hate the
Christian faith.Without a doubt,
there is a war on the Christian faith in America today. It is being
waged in classrooms, courtrooms and churches all over the nation. The following is an excerpt from a speech
that Rand Paul gave
earlier this year“There is a war on Christianity, not
just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide. And your
government, or more correctly, you, the taxpayer, are funding it.”Evidence of this war on Christianity is
everywhere these days. The following are just a few examples-An elementary school in North Carolina
ordered a little six-year-old girl
to remove the word God from a poem that she wrote to honor her two
grandfathers that had served in the Vietnam War.-The Ohio Statehouse
banned Christian pastors from using the name of Jesus when they open
up the daily sessions with prayer.-The use of the name of Jesus was also
forbidden in all prayers opening sessions of the North Carolina
State-House.-Last year,
a federal appeals court ruled that prayers before commission
meetings in Forsyth County, North Carolina that included the name of
Jesus were unconstitutional.-Earlier this year, a Florida Atlantic
University student that refused to stomp on the name of Jesus
was banned from class.-A student at Sonoma State University was
ordered to take off a cross that she was wearing because someone could
be offended.-A teacher in New Jersey
was fired for giving his own Bible to a student that did not own
one.-An open air preacher in Illinois was
recently threatened with arrest for scaring
people with the message of the gospel.-A high school track team was
disqualified earlier this year because one of the runners made
a gesture thanking God once he had crossed the finish line.-Volunteer chaplains for the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Departmenthave been banned from using the name of Jesus in their public
prayers. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Chaplains all over
the nation are now being banned from using the name of Jesus.-In recent months, daredevil Nik Wallenda
has walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls and has walked a tightrope
across the Grand Canyon, and yet both times the mainstream media has
gone out of the way to keep the name of Jesus
out of news reports“Despite Nik Wallendas frequent
mentions of God the Father and Jesus during his high-wire crossing
of Niagara Falls Friday night, an
ABC News blog documenting virtually every moment of the achievement
makes no mention of his verbal thanks to the Creator.“Wallenda, 33, the great grandson of
legendary tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, walked across Niagara
Falls on a high wire, as hundreds watched on TV at a block party in
his Florida hometown of Sarasota, Fla., and millions of others tuned
in for ABC television coverage.“Wallenda was fitted with a
microphone during his tension-filled, 25-minute saunter at 200 feet
high, and he could be heard praising God numerous times as he walked
the length of four football fields from New York to Canada.”A recently released 140 page report
entitled The
Survey of Religious Hostility in America included some more
examples of how Christianity is being systematically oppressed in
America today
- A federal judge threatened
incarceration to a high school valedictorian unless she removed
references to Jesus from her graduation speech.- City officials prohibited senior
citizens from praying over their meals, listening to religious
messages or singing gospel songs at a senior activities center.- A public school official prevented a
student from handing out flyers inviting her classmates to an event
at her church.- A public universitys law school
banned a Christian organization because it required its officers to
adhere to a statement of faith that the university disagreed with.- The U.S. Department of Justice
argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government can tell
churches and synagogues which pastors and rabbis it can hire and
fire.- The U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans funerals,
overriding the wishes of the deceaseds families.- A federal judge held that prayers
before a state House of Representatives could be to Allah but not to
Jesus.Are you starting to get the picture?
And one of the biggest battlegrounds for
religious freedom in America at the moment is the U.S. military.Right now, there are some very powerful
forces that are trying to eradicate all expressions of the Christian
faith from the U.S. military. It has gotten so bad that a 23 year Air
Force veteran was recently ordered
to remove his Bible from his desk, and the Air Force recently came
out and announced that service members are only allowed to talk about
their faith if it does
not make others uncomfortable.The U.S. military is a far different
institution than it once was. Today, political correctness rules the
U.S. military.If you doubt this, just check out
this example“Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes is a
Christian chaplain currently serving in the U.S. Air Force. He is
stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska. As an
ordained clergyman whose duties are to provide religious instruction
and spiritual counseling, he has a page on the bases website called
‘Chaplains Corner.’“Reyes recently wrote an essay
entitled, ‘No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War
II.’ This common saying is attributed to a Catholic priest in World
War II, made famous when President Dwight D. Eisenhower said during
a 1954 speech: ‘I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a
movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In
battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the
foxholes.'”The Military Religious Freedom Foundation
was absolutely outraged when they heard about this. They demanded that
the commander of the base, Col. Brian Duffy, do something about the
anti-secular diatribe that Reyes had authored.In the old days, a base commander would
have had a good chuckle and then would have told the MRFF where to stick
their complaint, but the old days are gone.These days, base commanders cower
subserviently before politically correct organizations such as the MRFF.
Just check out what
happened next“Nonetheless, only five hours after
MRFFs complaint, the essay was removed from the website. Duffy has
profusely apologized to MRFF for not stopping this religious leader
from sharing religious thoughts.“But this responsewhich again
appears to be a violation of Reyess First Amendment rightsis
insufficient for MRFF. They said, ‘Faith based hate, is hate all the
same, and, Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately punished.'”
(Emphasis added).And thanks
to the MRFF, special edition Bibles for service members have been
banned from being sold on military bases .“Bowing to a complaint from a
religious watchdog group, the Pentagon will no longer give consent
for a publisher to use the official emblems of the military services
on a line of Bibles sold on base exchanges.“The group claimed victory, but an
association of former military chaplains is demanding that Congress
overturn the Defense Departments decision.“The Bibles, branded for each of four
services as ‘The Soldiers Bible,’ ‘The Sailors Bible’ and so on,
are published by LifeWay Christian Resources Holman Bible
Publishers, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Bible Convention,
said Chris Rodda, the senior research director for the Military
Religious Freedom Foundation.”The MRFF is a very insidious
organization. It is headed up by a man named Mikey Weinstein. He has
called Christians human
monsters and enemies
of the United States Constitution. Weinstein is convinced that
sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ while in the military is sedition
and treason and should be punished as such.You would think that people like
Weinstein would be dismissed as lunatics, but unfortunately under the
Obama administration he has been brought in as a special adviser to the
Pentagon.What a crazy world that we live in.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama himself has
remained completely silent as a totally innocent American citizen is
being tortured in an Iranian prison. If that prisoner was a liberal
activist, Obama would be moving heaven and earth to get him released.
But because he
is a Christian, we havent heard a peep out of Obama, and many
Christian leaders want an explanation .“One of the nations most prominent
evangelical leaders wants to know why President Obama has remained
silent as Iran tortures an American pastor held captive in one of
the Islamic republics most notorious prisons.“Franklin Graham, the president of
the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse,
told Fox News the imprisonment and torture of Pastor Saeed Abedini
is a blatant example of ‘religious intolerance.’“‘Many in the international community
are expressing outrage over this blatant example of religious
intolerance,’ Graham said. ‘I ask that our government do the same
and demand that Pastor Saeed Abedini be released and allowed to
return home to his wife and family in the United States.'”We are rapidly moving toward a time when
followers of Jesus will be treated as second class citizens in America.
The following are some
other examples of this trend
- A War Games scenario at Fort
Leavenworth that identified Christian groups and Evangelical groups
as being potential threats;A 2009 Dept. of Homeland Security memorandum
that identified future threats to national security coming from
Evangelicals and pro-life groups;- A West Point study released by the
U.S. Military Academys Combating Terrorism Center that linked
pro-lifers to terrorism;
Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was
uninvited from the Pentagons National Day of Prayer service because
of his comments about Islam;Christian prayers were banned at
the funeral services for veterans at Houstons National Cemetery;Bibles were banned at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center a decision that was later
rescinded;
Christian crosses and a
steeple were removed from a chapel in Afghanistan because the
military said the icons disrespected other religionsFor much more on all of this, please see
my previous article entitled All
Over America Evangelical Christians Are Being Labeled As Extremists And
Hate Groups.This is not what America is supposed to
be about.How quickly we have turned our backs on
the values of our founders.In a recent article, Lt.
Gen. Jerry Boykin tried to remind us of how far we have drifted from
what our founders intended .“Its a good thing that George
Washington is dead and military history effectively banished from
our campuses. Otherwise, we might remember the general order
Washington issued upon taking command of the embattled Continental
Armyand in Boston, no less. The general ‘requires and expects of
all officers and soldiers a punctual attendance at Divine services,
to implore the blessing of Heaven upon the means used for our safety
and defense.’“In the same way, any assistant
professor of government hoping to achieve tenure will likely skim
over certain sections of the first presidents Farewell Address,
which reads: ‘Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to
political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable
supports.'”Will America be able to stand if we
continue to try to push every shred of the Christian faith out of public
life?
“…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of
the
power may be of God and not of us. We are
hard pressed on every side, yet
not crushed…
perplexed, but
not in despair
persecuted, but
not forsaken;
struck down, but not destroyed
always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the
life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Corinthians 2:7-10