AS IN THE USA SO ALSO IN THE UK
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. [Matthew 24:9-13]
Reaping What We've Sown
Because we have allowed the censorship of
our public officials, our teachers, our elected representatives
and our judges of expressing their faith in public, the
predictable is happening: a generation of young people growing
up with very little understanding of the spiritual principles on
which our country was founded.
Our culture has taught them that right and wrong are abribrary -
subjective - changing.
Many people today have willfully and philosophically turned away from the covenantal vision and biblical principles of our Founders and have been promoting as 'constitutional' those things which God condemns (Matt. 24:10). Our society now openly endorses the killing of babies, homosexuality as an acceptable life-style, and encourages the pagan worship of Mother Earth.
The Scriptures state that "Blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord." (Psalm 33:12). The nation who
honors the one true Jehovah God will experience His blessings of
protection, provision, peace, and stability. But, as Pastor
Jeremiah Wright said, "America has failed." This nation has
forsaken God and as a result we can see in our families, our
schools, the inner-cities, our government, our national
security, our Constitutional rights, indeed in all areas of our
lives, the removal of Gods blessing.
The demise of morality, the
loss of our freedom, the crime in our streets,
increased drug use, the poverty in the inner-cities, the war
zones in our homes and the
violence of our children is a result of our disobedience to
the Word of God and will not improve until we take
responsibility for our actions. Contrary to liberal propaganda,
we don't have an economic problem, we have a problem of our
spirit. We have willfully and systematically rejected God and as
a result, we are now experiencing the fruit of that sin.
The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Christians
Across our country today and indeed around
the world, there is a battle being waged by those who hate
Christ and the truth contained in the Bible (Mat. 24:9). The
scheme is a propaganda campaign that depersonalizes and
minimizes Christians. Depersonalization makes it easier for
people to accept negative stereotypes, pigeonholed, and, in the
extreme, tolerate abuse and persecution of the people who have
been depersonalized. Historical precedent for this can be found
in Nero's treatment of Christians, racism in all forms, and
Hitler's treatment of the Jews.
Secularists appear to have agreed upon three specific mechanisms
to complete the task of immobilizing and silencing Christians.
You can find
evidence of these strategies in your own communities and
schools.
1. Deny our
Judeo-Christian roots and rewrite our historical record.
Children in public schools never hear the expressions of faith
made by the founders of our country. They celebrate the
pilgrim's first Thanksgiving but are not told to whom those
early settlers were thankful. Christ and His church has been
banned and any mention of Christianity is forbidden.
2. Convince
the American people that Christians are in violation of the
Constitution.
Liberal activists would have us believe our founding fathers
were terrified at the prospect of Christians participating in
the political process. This led them, we're told, to establish a
wall of separation between church and state. But no such
provision appears in the Constitution or any of the foundational
documents. The principle of separation of church and state is
found only in one of Jefferson's letters, and referred, not to
the exclusion of religious people from government, but to the
protection of religion from governmental interference.
"[The religious right] are demanding their rightful seat at the table, and that is what the American people fear the most." [Rep. Vic Fazio, D-CA, "God as a Wedge Issue," Norfold Virginian-Pilot, June 24, 1994]
Liberals in Congress formed a so-called "Radical Right Task Force" in 1994, paid for with American tax dollars. This "Task Force" meets in the U.S. Capitol to plan how to intimidate Christians from going to the polls and to deny churches tax-exempt status if they distribute Christian voter education literature. They have focused on "non-profit groups vs. Advocacy groups" and "when do non-profits cross the line and become advocacy groups?" The law provides tax exemptions for non-profit groups but not for advocacy groups.
"People of traditional faith have become effective, and this makes the left quake." [Sen. Dan Coats]
3.
Embarrass, insult, shout down and mischaracterize Christians,
hoping to intimidate them into silence.
Those
who reject Jesus will also shun Christians, for faithful
believers carry the presence of the Holy Spirit who brings
conviction of sin as well as God's love. Any mention of sin
grates against today's relativistic values and the kind of
"freedom" where anything goes. That's why Christians, who are
"the aroma of Christ" to believers, are also "the smell of death
to those who are perishing." They hate the true Jesus.
George Gardner of College Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kansas said, "The evangelical Christian right does not represent the religion of America. We have to deal with the Christian evangelical religious right that would take the love of God and turn it into the wrath of God ... that would take the equality of men, women and children and would turn it into a male-dominated hierarchy that would subjugate women and intimidate children." [The Wichita Eagle, January 22, 1994]
Leading political and cultural groups have
mounted a campaign to misrepresent and discredit the religious
right in hopes of undermining the growing political influence of
religious conservatives. President Bill Clinton called religious
conservatives
"obstructionist right-wing fanatics"
who embrace a message of
"hate and fear."
Hillary Clinton claimed that those who were
bringing charges against her husband for his extra-marital
sexual adventures are part of a
"Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" or simply are
prejudiced against anyone from Arkansas.
Texas governor Ann Richards labeled them
"mongers of hate" who
"preach their anger" and "have turned the party of
Lincoln into the party of Operation Rescue." Also, Congressman,
Vic Fazio, chairman of the Democratic Congresional Campaign
Committee, said the
"intolerant,"
religious right wants
"to carry views that are distinctly religious over into
government and try to impose them as law" using
"stealth candidates" and "subterranean tactics" to advance its
ruthless agenda. U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders spoke of
the
"unchristian religious right"
as "those people who are selling
our children out in the name of religion."
Writing on the op-ed page of the New York Times,
Robert H. Meneilly writes,
"The religious right confronts us
with a threat far greater then the old threat of Communism."
The Christian Right has oftentimes been compared with Nazism and
they point out that Nazi's were Christian. But, were they?
Martin Borman was a very high Nazi official in Hitler's
government and he wrote,
"National Socialism and Christian concepts are irreconcilable. The Christian churches build upon man's ignorance and are endeavoring to keep the greatest number of people in a state of ignorance....Our National Socialist concept of the world is on a far higher plane than are the ideas of Christianity, whose essential points have been taken from the Jews. For that reason too, we have no need of Christianity....." (The NAZI YEARS, Joachim Remak, pp. 103-104, Prentice-Hall, 1969)
Ludwig Von Mises described socialism under the Nazi's [increasingly similar in America].
"There are, however, no longer entrepreneurs but only shop managers (Betriebsfuhrer). These shop managers do the buying and selling, pay the workers, contract debts, and pay interest and amortization. There is no labor market; wages and salaries are fixed by the government [Labor unions, minimum wage]. The government tells the shop managers what and how to produce [FDA, OSHA], at what prices and from whom to buy, at what prices and to whom to sell. The government decrees to whom and under what terms the capitalists must entrust their funds and where and at what wages laborers must work. Market exchange is only a sham. All the prices, wages, and interest rates are fixed by the central authority [Federal Reserve]. They are prices, wages, and interest rates in appearance only; in reality they are merely determinations of quantity relations in the government's orders. The government, not the consumers, directs production. This is socialism in the outward guise of capitalism. Some labels of capitalistic market economy are retained but they mean something entirely different from what they mean in a genuine market economy." (Omnipotent Government, Ludwig Von Mises, p. 56) [emphasis added by author]
Any Christian who has stood his ground on Biblical faith has grown uncomfortably accustomed to being called all sorts of names:
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Judgmental or Biggot: People say, "You criticize our way - you don't think we're good enough for God!" (Romans 3:23-24) |
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Arrogant: "You think you're better than us - that you have found the only way to eternal life!" (John 14:6) |
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Narrow-minded: "You think you have the only handle on truth. If you practiced the love you preach, you would see all people as worthy of salvation" (1 Timothy 4:1) |
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Ignorant: "You don't know there are other paths to enlightenment" (2 Timothy 4:3-4) |
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Old-Fashioned: "You cling to obsolete myths" (Hebrews 13:8) |
The names "radical right," "far right," "extreme right"and "Christian right" are also part of the effort to marginalize and demoralize those with traditional views. When was the last time you heard homosexual activists or abortionists referred to as the "Radical Left?
The Media Assault on Christianity
When Reggie White, an ordained minister and
All-Pro defensive end for the Green Bay Packers, stated in a
speech his Christian beliefs regarding homosexuality, CBS almost
immediately cancelled his pending sportscasting contract. During
his speech, White declared that he is "offended" by the
comparison of struggles of homosexual groups to those of blacks.
"Homosexuality is a decision. It's not a race," he said. At
about the same time, CBS announced plans to air the Howard Stern
Show, featuring raunchy language, nudity and graphic sexual
content. Nike agreed to retain Reggie as a spokesman, but Nike
Chairman Phil Knight denounced Reggie as "crazy." Campbell Soup
Company declines to renew Reggie's endorsement contract, saying
that his "comments are not consistent with the principles of the
Campbell Soup Company."
Supported by the Justice Department, the news media
characterizes Christians who choose to believe in the Bible as
cultists. Numerous examples of this bigotry is evidenced by the
endless reports of people who believe the "end of the age" is
near is responsible for all sorts of terrorists acts. Some of
the more apparent examples includes the burning of the Davidian
compound in Waco Texas and the murder of the family at Ruby
Ridge.
Following the tragedy in Oklahoma City,
Americans watched in disbelief as liberal pundits attempted to
portray the maniac bombers with conservative and religious
Americans - especially those who fight for the unborn child.
Writing in The Washington Post, Michael Lind made that
connection between the bombers and pro-lifers. He wrote,
"The story of Oklahoma City and the militias should not make us forget that the main form of political terrorism in the United States is perpetuated by right wing opponents of abortion."
Washington Post columnist Carl Rowan wrote one of the most unbelievable columns stating:
"I am absolutely certain the harsh rhetoric of the Gingriches and Doles … creates a climate of violence in America."
Bruce Morton of CNN attempted to link the bombers with religious Americans:
"What do you suppose the odds are that when they finally know who did it, they will say, "Well, I was following God's will?"
Eleanor Clift, the loud voice of the left on PBS's The McGlaughlin Report, predicted the bombers were from...
"a loose cabal of gun extremists, religious extremists."
In the wake of the murder of Nicole Simpson,
Wall Street Journal columnist Al Hunt attributed part of the
blame for domestic violence against women on Pat Robertson's
teaching on the headship of the husband over the wife.
A government report blamed Christianity for causing teenage
suicides. Published in 1989 by the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, it accused Catholics, Baptists, and other
Christian groups of depicting homosexuality as morally wrong,
thus creating "unresolvable internal conflicts for youth who
adhere to their faith but believe they will not change their
sexual orientation." The recommendation: churches must change
their beliefs.
"Religion needs to reassess homosexuality in a positive context..." ["Government Tells Churches What to Teach," AFA Journal (October 1989).]
In 1989, the U.S. government released a report
by a committee of the National Research Council which called the
Christian perspective of homosexuality a "deep-rooted social
pathology" and further blamed Christians for "stigmatizing"
homosexuals and thus contributing to the spread of AIDS.
Dan Rather, CBS News anchor, blamed Christians for attacks on
homosexuals in an April 11 editorial for the magazine Nation. He
wrote,
"Gays and lesbians are beaten to death in the streets with increasing frequency - in part due to irrational fear of AIDS but also because hatemongers, from comedians to the worst of the Christian Right, sent the message that homosexuals have no value in our society."
You can't overlook the massive
public and media response generated following Rev. Jeremiah
Wright’s reference concerning the scientific and political
imposition of HIV/AIDS as a genocidal plague created by the
Anglo-American ruling elite. Scientific support for Rev.
Wright's concerns was published in 1998 by Dr. Leonard Horowitz,
a Harvard degree expert in public health who spent three years
investigating links between the first cases of AIDS and the
first hepatitis B vaccines given to gay men in New York and
central Africans between 1972 and 1974.
Indeed, name calling has become the defacto
standard for liberals when describing their opponents. But,
their derogatory terms, "biggot," "racist," "sexist," and
"homophobic" must be loosing their effectiveness because
recently they have begun a new campaign: calling their opponents
"crazy."
Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen says that Charlton
Heston is nuts because his views on the culture war contradict
today's notion of political correctness.
Jesse Jackson says that Mayor Rudy Giuliani "sounds like a
mentally disturbed person" because the Mayor had defended police
action in New York City respecting the shooting of unarmed
suspects.
Mind you, these people are not saying that their opponents' ideas are crazy. That is perfectly legitimate. They are rather labeling the proponents of ideas they oppose as crazy. Their intent of course is to convince the American public that since these people are crazy, as opposed to the idea being crazy, then they do not deserve to be listened to at all. [Paul Weyrich, "Liberals resort to calling names," Christian Crusade, June 2000]
The defenders of all that is fine and decent indict Bible-believing activists as "hate mongers," "fire-breathing radicals," "unchristian," "merchants of hate" who would establish "a Christian version of the Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran" and "fanatics" with a message of "hate and fear." By stigmatizing the values movement, the Left hopes to avoid the issues in debate. Its subliminal message is: "Don't listen to what these extremists are saying. Don't take them seriously." They're militants and bigots - and that's all you need to know about them." [Don Feder, "The Religious Right? That's You," Christian American, September 1994.]
The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance, freedom, and open-mindedness. Question: Isn't the real truth that they are intolerant of religion? They refuse to tolerate its importance in our lives. - Ronald Reagan
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MARCH-2009