I just finished reading a new book called SPEECHLESS: SILENCING THE CHRISTIANS by Reverend Donald E. Wildmon, the founder and president of the American Family Association. In it he takes up where Janet Folger’s THE CRIMINALIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY left off.
Both books chronicle various instances of bias against Christians and both books warn that soon it will be tough to speak out as a Christian in our society if we don’t start doing something immediately. Even now, the Hate Crimes bill is making its way through Congress and Obama has vowed to quickly sign it into law. Similar hate crimes laws in Canada have resulted in some scary legal prosecutions. For example, one newspaper was ordered to pay three homosexual men $1500 after the paper ran a paid advertisement that featured Bible verses critical of homosexual behavior. In another case, a man was charged with hate speech when he distributed flyers that listed the medical dangers of homosexual behavior.
This same kind of persecution is already turning up in the United States as Reverend Wildmon clearly shows.
SPEECHLESS is a sort of companion volume to the show of the same name. It documents cases of suppression and general bashing of Christians that seem almost unbelievable and yet are happening all over the country today.
One outrageous story concerns a group of eleven people who went out to evangelize in the midst of the city of Philadelphia’s OUTFest, a celebration in the ‘gayborhood’ of homosexuality. This is an open, public event funded by the city. These eleven Christians stood together and began to sing “Blessed be the name of the Lord’ on a street corner. Organizers of the event had formed a security group called the Pink Angels who linked arms to form human chains and carried large insulation panels to block the Christians and keep them from moving down the street. They also blew whistles and screamed obscenities. This sort of harassment is illegal in Philly, so the police were called. And yes, you guessed it, it was the Christians who were arrested and are now being charged with three felonies and five misdemeanors with a maximum sentence of forty-seven years in prison and $90,000 in fines.
The Boy Scouts are another group that has suffered persecution and bias because they refuse to allow homosexual Scout leaders.
Schools are especially vulnerable when it comes to a student’s right to free speech and freedom of religion. The ACLU has so cowed school administrators and officials that they err way too far on the side of caution rather than be dragged into a lawsuit, even one they will eventually win. How ridiculous does it get??? One fourth grade student was stopped from giving out candy cane writing pens to his friends because the candy cane’s origin is Christian and was originally used as a Christian symbol.
All this should be utter nonsense that’s laughed out of existence before it even starts. These days it’s not. In another, more sobering example, Catholic Charities of Boston was forced out of the adoption business because it refused to place children in homes with same-sex couples. The saddest part of all is that Catholic Charities specialized in ‘special needs’ children who have a harder time being adopted.
This is what happens when a falsehood -- that there is no difference between same-sex unions and marriage -- is elevated to a moral principle and inserted into the law. The end goal of the liberals and homosexual activists is to redefine Christianity as a form of bigotry, thus making it the moral and legal equivalent of racism.
Bottom line: this is an important book that should be read by every Christian.
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I was saddened but not surprised to learn that Christians who believe Jesus is coming again are being targeted -- by other Christians!
Emerging church leader Brian McLaren says that this type of Christian who takes the Bible literally and seriously is the reason there’s no peace in the Middle East. He feels the view that Christ will return to establish his kingdom on earth is morally and ethically harmful. He also believes that what he calls this ‘bogus end-of-the-world scenario’ leads to a kind of death wish for World War III which might all too easily create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
McLaren hates the notion that Israel is a special nation in the eyes of God. I don’t know which version of the Bible he’s been reading, but it certainly doesn’t correlate with mine.
McLaren feels those Christians who hold to such biblical beliefs must be ‘robustly confronted’ by the rest of the nation. If that isn’t ‘hate’ speech, I don’t know what is... not that anyone is going to call him out on it.
Not long ago, an article was posted on the Internet that said ministries that defend the faith are akin to mentally unstable cultists who are not like typical dissidents or normal people who complain, they are deadly.
Tony Campolo says ‘rigid’ Christians who believe in the possibility of Jesus’ soon return are the real problem for the whole world. He feels they’re to blame for wars and a host of other evils. Mark Driscoll in his book VINTAGE JESUS ridicules Christians who believe there will be an Armageddon and a Rapture.
Rick Warren in THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE tells readers to think about something other than Bible Prophecy because he considers it a distraction.
Barbara Marx Hubbard, a big name on the New Age circuit, feels the world can’t evolve and there can be no peace while such Bible believing Christians are around.
J. Vernon McGee once said many years ago that the persecution of Christians in the end times was going to come from other Christians including the denominations. Looks like he was right on the money.
