http://www.thegospeltruthministry.com/usa.htm
Special Feature of Worthy
News
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
GROWING IN THE UNITED STATES
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.
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