IN MY HUMBLE OPINION!!!

It is important to state and make some things very clear at the outset. The reason for this religious commentary is because we have so many things going on within our nation and the world that are aimed at limiting and silence our freedom of religious expression, that to simply ignore them and not to seek out why they are happening would be our choice to stay willfully ignorant. There is no faith that is under as much persecution than the Judeo-Christian faiths. Hopefully, within this series, I would like to address the probable reasons for this. With the war on the Judeo-Christian faiths and values becoming increasingly more evident and more intense seemingly every day, we can no longer turn away and pretend that this is not happening and that it does not or will not affect each of us in time regardless of your personal faith convictions. It is my intention to make a series of posts to try to shed some light on this issue.

America is a country that at one time prided itself as a nation that provided and protected everyone’s religious freedoms (Amendment 1). “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Nevertheless, apparently there appears to be those in our government on all levels, and within every aspect of our society that has made a commitment to secure positions of power and influence in order to circumvent and remove our freedom of religious expression. Within this constitutional statement of the 1st Amendment is the assumption that our freedom of expression will remain intact as long as it does not hinder the constitutional rights, privileges or safety of others.

Within this series, I will post and repost various messages of other individuals that have shared their opinions, experiences and their stories regarding the exercising of their faith. It is also important to keep in mind that at no time are any of these posts meant to offend anyone regardless of your position or religious affiliation. Nerveless, it is human nature that there will be some who will choose to take offense. That is unfortunate and therefore, I apologize to you in advance.

The primary weapon of attack against the Judeo-Christian faith system usually starts as an intellectual attack. World leading Christian Apologist Dr. Ravi Zacharias addresses some of these attacks along with Creation Scientist Dr. Hugh Ross. This short interview is not all inclusive but it shows an example of intellectual and emotional attacks against the Jewish and the Christian faiths. Sometimes, the attacks are against the general concept of “God” which is the same.

Intellectual persecution is always followed by the suppression of your freedom of speech and the expression of your faith. It has taken the form of what we call “Political Correctness (PC).” What PC does is make one’s expression of their faith value wrong because it is defined as mentally and emotionally “attacking” the one who is offended, thereby making it okay to respond to them by any means up to and including physical violence. If the faith person violates the rule of PC then they are labeled such things as a hater, racist, communist, homophobe, xenophobe and so forth without any facts that support those labels. Then the PC culture continues with that practice and makes it a normative part of any public discussion, the label becomes their “strawman” and thereby becomes their talking point. PC makes it impossible to have a dialog with anyone with whom they disagree. Unfortunately, this disruptive and disrespectful culture has apparently come to America and it makes so many people unsafe.

Then this progression morphs into the more structured components of our society. Those who are against the Judeo-Christian faith are well positioned within the society and they influence Colleges and Universities attacking students who dare to speak out against Political Correctness, and when professors are also against the faith it makes it difficult for the faith-based student to participate within the free exchange of ideas at a place that was originally known to encourage the birth of new ideas.

The progression against free speech morphs into all levels of government including the US Congress, governors, state legislatures, mayors, councils, courts, and law enforcement that systematically move to silence those decenters often potentially violating their civil and constitutional rights.

The entertainment industry, an industry that has a lot of influence within the minds of our young people often make political statements and sets life examples that will only lead the misguided youth to ruin. I once heard a teenage say, that he enjoyed attending church and participating within the church but he makes a point not to let his friends and classmates know.

The media is an entity that is protected by our constitution because we are to have access to the truth at all times. However, because of the “Fake News” that is so involved with partisan politics and personalities, we’ve learned that we can’t even trust the multi-billionaire mainline media. This lack of trust has given birth to a genre called Alternative Media. Small time regular citizens that are dedicated to learning and passing the “understood truth” to the public.

There are so many other examples but these are simply a few. With so much social and legal pressures coming against the Judeo-Christian population, they are being faced with the uncomfortable choice between converting to PC or lose everything. The law that is supposed to protect its citizens instead is vehemently are going after Christian church and is attacking the foundation of the Christian beliefs.

Attacks against Christians by Atheist becomes more evident when it morphs into removing one’s freedom. The attacks that we see in America pale in comparison to what’s going on around the world. In China, it takes away the freedom to practice their Judeo-Christian faith. Chinese believers are risking their very lives to worship when in America, many people take their faith for granted. This is a must watch video.

Christians in Nigeria and other parts of Africa are being persecuted for their faith. They aren’t criminals, they are simply worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. They are good citizens and good neighbors, so why should they be hated and destroyed? That can be said for any believer no matter what country they reside in.

Summary: It is a part of our history that America was founded because of religious persecution and that launched thousands of souls to come here in their search for religious freedom. Christopher Columbus was believed to be looking for a new world because the Jews in Spain were being forced to either convert to Christianity or face dire consequences. We also know that the Puritans came here to flee religious persecution, just to give a couple of examples.

However, here we are today in the 21st Century and it appears that we have come full circle in history where the past has become our present reality. The country that was birthed in freedom with the guaranteed right to a religious expression based upon the 1st Amendment to our Constitution is fighting for its very life to preserve this freedom. That no doubt is a big contributing factor to the large support that elected Donald J. Trump, Sr., into the Oval Office. American’s can put up with many things but when you try to take away our freedom to practice our faith, then they will fight back. There are a number of people that may not yet embrace a specific faith but they bristle at the thought of the government telling them that they now can’t believe in a faith that says the secular community cannot practice their secular pleasures.

As you’ve seen earlier within this article the belief that an attack on one’s faith usually starts with an intellectual assault, an attempt to prove to you that your faith system is impractical, bias, not scientifically sound, superstitious, and is no different than any other religion. This attack will also attack one’s identity and will usually relabel you as a hater, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, hypocritical, and so on. The object is to get the faith-based believer to take the defense, even when there is no proof that these labels are justified. Then when there is a discussion about the “issue” the anti-faith person will attempt to establish or reestablish the conversation about the faith-based individual’s “personality” by saying, “we all know that X is a racist!” Therefore, keeping the conversation on the person or “strawman” and evading the issue.

We’ve seen the attack move from intellectual to social, where it now becomes normative and acceptable to violate the personal space of a faith based conservative person. It becomes okay to threaten them and their loved ones, to harass them in public, to slander them and make charges against them that are not based upon fact, but you know that you have the support of sympathizers in key positions of authority. One source reports that one believer’s home was invaded by the local SWAT team because they were classified as a terrorist. A number of believers have found themselves fighting legal battles of contrived or nefarious charges of a crime or discrimination.

In America, we’re seeing examples of legal harassment against Christians and we’re also seeing harassment in other countries. North Korea is one of the leading nations when it comes to the killing, torture, and imprisonment of believers. China is actively closing down churches, arresting and killing believers. We can also look to other nations such as Iran, Africa, and many of the nations within the Arab world. It has gotten to a point where Christians have become the most persecuted population in the world.

This is my humble opinion. So what do you think? Please write your comments down below.

For more information regarding religious persecution, you can clink on this attached link: https://www.persecution.org/