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Persecution of Christians
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Some years ago, I worked at a job where another colleague and I had to go out of town on an assignment for a week. Since I was going to spend a considerable amount of time with my co-worker, I asked her some questions in order to find out what we had in common and what kinds of things we could talk about. Some of my questions were about religion. I wanted to know if she was a fellow Christian. If she was, then we would have a lot in common and we could share openly about our faith. I was not in any way trying to convert her. I just wanted to have some idea of where she stood. She never gave any indication that she did not want me to ask those questions about religion. When we came back to the office, she filed an official complaint against me. My supervisor informed me that if I talked about religion with co-workers again, I would be in danger of losing my job. That was persecution, but it was mild and easily remedied. All I needed to do was either change jobs or else not talk about religion. I have a friend who went to prison. (Some Christians did bad things before their conversion. Sometimes their past catches up with them.) Friends who visited him were allowed to give him a Bible. They also ordered some Christian magazines to be sent to him directly from the publisher. The prison refused those magazines and sent them back. However, when I spoke with prison officials, I was informed that magazines could be sent, as long as they came directly from the publisher, and as long as they were not “inappropriate.” I asked what “inappropriate” meant. I was told that pornography and violent material were not acceptable. Evidently, somebody at that prison considers Christian material to be as offensive as violence or pornography. This was not a serious situation, because my friend had a Bible, he was able to go to chapel with other Christians, and his prison term was short. His situation was more serious than mine, but it was limited in the scope of damage caused. I have a friend whose son is in prison, and is expected to be there for many years. He is not allowed to receive Christian literature, and the prison officials will not allow him to have a Bible. The prison has is a lot of Muslim literature and a lot of Wiccan literature. (Wicca is a religion that is based on witchcraft, nature worship, and goddess worship.) However, Christian literature is not allowed. This is a much more serious situation. The young man is not able to remedy it. He needs to have a Bible. He told his mother that being a Christian in his environment could result in violence against him. Because of that, he has considered converting to Islam. In terms of the entire country, this is a small, localized problem. But for him, it is very serious. Many prisons have volunteer Wiccan chaplains. A Wisconsin prison hired a full-time Wiccan chaplain (a Wiccan priestess who calls herself Rev. Witch). In that prison, I would expect to find a lot of Wiccan literature. Life there may be difficult for Christian prisoners. [Note 1] I know a man whose daughter was given an English assignment that requires her to read anti-Christian literature and write a paper about it. This is involuntary, anti-Christian indoctrination. Its purpose is to undermine the faith of Christian students, and to make it more difficult for non-Christian students to become Christians. Mercifully, this girl is a strong Christian, and she comes from a solid Christian family. I have an adult friend who told me about something that happened when she was in high school. Her English teacher required the students to read literature about witchcraft, including how to cast spells. Since students can’t graduate without passing English, she was under pressure to read the literature in order to avoid getting a bad grade. The Bible condemns witchcraft, spells, and fortune telling. (See Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Galatians 5:19-21; and Revelation 21:8) So this assignment required her to do something that was contrary to her Christian beliefs. (This would also be a problem for Jews who take Exodus and Deuteronomy seriously.) Wicca is a modern pagan religion that involves witchcraft and spell casting. This English assignment openly promoted Wiccan beliefs and practices. It was religious indoctrination in the name of public education. If these are isolated incidents, then they are spiritually challenging for the children who are involved, but they are not a widespread danger. However, if this kind of thing occurs at many schools, then we have a serious problem. I know a Christian minister who was falsely accused of child abuse by someone who resents his ministry. As a result, his children were taken from their home and from their parents. Eventually, they were returned. A representative of Child Protective Services later apologized to him, because the case was so unfounded. His children were traumatized, but they live in a home with mature Christian parents, and God is healing the emotional wounds. This was a serious situation, but it was resolved. God promised to make all things work out for our good if we love Him. (Romans 8:28) This minister and his children love the Lord. So God is using their situation to make them become stronger, more mature Christians. I know a social worker whose supervisor tried to prevent Christian families from adopting children. She considered Christian homes to be a bad environment for raising children. A federal court has ruled that it is illegal for students at the Virginia Military Institute to say a nondenominational prayer before meals. [Note 2] Now that a legal precedent has been established, the ACLU could bring lawsuits against military academies in other states. It could come to the point that chaplains on aircraft carriers are not allowed to pray with military pilots before they fly into dangerous situations. [Note 3] The early stages of persecution can spread quietly, unnoticed except by the individuals who are personally affected by it. By the time the general public becomes aware of it, it may have progressed to the point where it is difficult to stop it. The Supreme Court ruled that prayer in schools in unconstitutional. However, one bad Supreme Court decision can be reversed later. (This has happened in the past.) With the Supreme Court, everything depends on whether the school prayer decision is one isolated incident, or whether it indicates a trend that could become more and more destructive in the future. If the Supreme Court develops a mindset that is contrary to that of the framers of the Constitution, then it will become a source of destruction, rather than protection. There is a web page called “Seeds of Persecution.” It gives detailed summaries of events setting precedents that could lead to persecution, and of events that actually constitute persecution. Each summary has a title. If you click on it, you will go to an article about the subject. David Limbaugh wrote the book Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War against Christianity (Regnery Press, 2003). He gives documented cases showing how Christian children are being persecuted in public schools and in colleges, and how they are being involuntarily indoctrinated with humanist, New-Age, pagan, and anti-Christian teachings. He also describes cases where the government has oppressed Christians, and he documents public attacks on churches and Christians. (I will discuss these issues later in this article.) I suspect that what David Limbaugh has reported is just the tip of the iceberg. These are documented cases that have become public knowledge. For every documented case, how many unreported cases are there? Earlier in this article, I told you about cases that I am personally familiar with. Not one of them has been reported. PERSECUTING STUDENTS A fourth-grade student named Raymond Raines was in the habit of thanking God for his food before meals. While in his school cafeteria, he bowed his head to pray. A teacher publicly humiliated Raymond in front of the other students by ordering him to get out of his seat and go to the principal’s office. The principal ordered Raymond not to pray again. This happened three times. This 10-year-old boy was publicly ridiculed for his religious beliefs, subjected to school discipline because of them, and was eventually put in detention for a week. His family sued the school and the principal. Finally, the school board decided to allow students to pray at school as long as it is not “disruptive.” (David Limbaugh, Persecution, pages 21-22) (You can read about this online.) [Note 4] A kindergarten student named Kayla Broadus was used to saying grace out loud before meals. She said: “God is great. God is good. And we thank Him for this food.” Her school ordered her to stop praying. Her parents sued the school, and she was finally allowed to pray again. (This is online.) [Note 5] These children and their parents had the courage to stand their ground. The children kept praying and their parents took the matter to court. How many other children have caved in and stopped praying? How many other parents were not willing to sacrifice the time and money that are required to sue a school? Two middle-school students (sisters) carried their Bibles to school. Their teacher confiscated the Bibles and took the girls to the principal’s office. She contacted the girls’ mother, and threatened to call Child Protective Services. In other words, she accused the mother of child abuse because her daughters took Bibles to school. When the mother came to the school, the teacher waved the Bibles and said: “This is garbage!” Then the teacher threw the Bibles into the trash can. (Persecution, page 45) (This is online.) [Note 6] Three middle school students had school books with the Ten Commandments on their book covers. School officials threw the covers in the trash. They said that the Ten Commandments are “hate speech.” (Persecution, page 45) (See Note 6.) If those school officials are unusual, then what they did is bad for their students, but we don’t have a serious national problem. However, if their attitude toward the Ten Commandments is widespread, then we could be on a road that will lead to persecution of Christians and Jews. A federal judge in Texas ruled that students are forbidden to say the word “Jesus” during their school’s graduation ceremonies. He said that a U.S. marshal would attend the graduation. Any student who said “Jesus” would be arrested and sent to jail. Students would face up to six months in jail. (Persecution, pages 5-6) (You can read about this online.) [Note 7] In Vermont, a child in kindergarten was forbidden to say that God is not dead. He was told that such talk is not allowed. In a Kentucky public school, administrators told a student that he was not allowed to pray or to talk about God. In Florida, a teacher told two elementary school students that they were not allowed to talk about Jesus while they were in school. (Persecution, page 6) Now I realize that evangelizing is not always welcome, but people can always throw the tracts in the trash. That is a far better solution than throwing the people in jail. Freedom of speech means that people need to learn to deal with unwelcome speech in civilized ways. In Connecticut, police officers told a man that they would arrest him if they had evidence that he gave religious tracts to a student. They said that giving such literature to a student constitutes “corrupting the morals of a minor.” (Persecution, page 6) In 2002, a California atheist named Michael Newdow sued his daughter’s school because her class recited the Pledge of Allegiance, including the words “under God.” The Court of Appeals ruled in his favor. (Persecution, pages 60-62) The Supreme Court has agreed to take this case. If it decides in favor of the atheist, then nobody in the United States will be allowed to publicly use the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. (This is online.) [Note 8] Michael Newdow also sued Congress. He wants to abolish the practice of having paid chaplains for the House and the Senate. America’s very first Congress passed the law that established government-paid chaplains for Congress. James Madison was personally involved in that legislation. He was one of the authors of the Constitution. So having Congressional chaplains be paid with taxpayers’ money cannot be against the intention of the framers of the Constitution. (You can read about this online.) [Note 9] ANTI-CHRISTIAN INDOCTRINATION John Dunphy is a secular humanist. He wrote an essay called, “A Religion for A New Age.” It was published in “The Humanist” magazine in 1983. In this essay he said that there is a battle going on for the future of humanity, and it must be fought and won in the public schools. He said that teachers should see themselves as evangelists of a new faith—humanism. They should teach humanist values in every subject they teach, at every level of education from day care and preschool to state universities. He said that the school classroom will become a place of conflict between the “old rotting corpse of Christianity” and the “new faith of humanism.” (You can read this online.) [Note 10] In 1994, Dunphy published an articled called “Dunphy Strikes Again” in the Secular Humanist Bulletin. He reaffirmed what he had previously said in “A Religion for A New Age.” In addition, he said that there is a “cultural civil war” going on in America, and “humanism is going to win.” (This is online.) [Note 11] Other humanists have said similar things. Horace Mann said that public schools must get rid of the concept of God. John Dewey said that God does not exist and there are no moral absolutes. He said that schools should exclude “dogma and creed” so that “immutable truth” will become “dead and buried.” Charles F. Potter said that American schools are a powerful tool for humanism. Paul Blanshard said that the purpose of schools is to promote a secular society by eliminating “religious superstition.” G. Richard Bozarth said that if humanists can make sure that schools only teach secular knowledge, then they can “kill the god of Christianity.” (Quotations from all of these men are online.) [Note 12] In the United States, humanism is a tax-exempt religion. In the 1950s, when humanists were seeking tax-exempt status as a religion, they openly declared that humanism is a religion. But then some Christians claimed that humanist religion was being taught in the public schools. So the humanists changed their tactics. They now claim that humanism is not a religion. But they still keep their tax-exempt status as a religion. (Articles about this are online.) [Note 13] There are humanist ministers. They have the same legal rights and privileges as Christian ministers. There are even humanist churches. (You can read about this online.) [Note 14] In 1961, the Supreme Court declared that humanism is a religion. It stated that one reason for its decision is the fact that the American Humanist Association has ministers who perform weddings and funerals. (An Internet article includes a quotation from the Supreme Court.) [Note 15] Some people are trying (with considerable success) to have secular humanism become the established, governmentally-endorsed religion in our educational system. This is contrary to the Constitution, which prohibits the state from establishing any religion. A United States Congressman said that “fundamental Bible-believing Christians” do not have the right to teach their religion to their children. A university professor said that children belong to the state. It has even been said that, in order for children to have “equality of opportunity,” they should be taken away from their families and raised communally. (You can read these quotations online.) [Note 16] Dr. Chester M. Pierce (a Professor of Educational Psychiatry at Harvard University) said that American children are “insane” because they are loyal to America, to their parents, and to their belief in God. He said that it is the job of teachers to heal these “sick children” by turning them into the “international children of the future.” (You can read his statement online.) [Note 17] Dr. Paul Brandwein is a child psychologist. Evidently he agrees with Dr. Pierce. In his book, “The Social Sciences,” Dr. Brandwein said: “Every child who believes in God is mentally ill.” (You can read this online.) [Note 18] Public schools have psychologists. If they agree with Dr. Brandwein, then they could make life difficult for Christian and Jewish students. When “experts” say that Christianity constitutes mental illness, I take such statements very seriously because of things that have happened in other countries. Do you remember when Russia was communist? It used to be part of the U.S.S.R., which was a block of communist nations. In the U.S.S.R., the authorities said that Christians were mentally ill because they believed in God. Christians were put in mental hospitals for “treatment.” They were not considered to be “cured” unless they renounced their faith. Some of these Christians were given medications that impaired their mental functioning so badly that they were reduced to a “vegetative” state. One Christian man spent 25 years in a mental hospital because he refused to renounce his faith. [Note 19] Today, in Communist China, Christians are being forcibly committed to mental hospitals. So are members of other religious groups. Political dissidents (people who are politically incorrect) are also being put into mental hospitals. Some of these people are being tortured in the hospitals. [Note 20] Public schools are using history textbooks that rewrite American history to eliminate any mention of Christian influences. They have removed information about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower. Many public school textbooks say that Thanksgiving was the American colonists giving thanks to the Indians, or to the earth goddess (as opposed to thanking God). One high school textbook on American history has 6 lines about George Washington and 6½ pages about Marilyn Monroe. The calendar of the California Teachers Association leaves out Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. But it has an “Internment of Japanese Day” and a “Buddhist Nirvana Day.” (Persecution, pages 65-77) Seventh-grade students in California were required to study Islam for three weeks. This included mandatory role playing. The students had to pretend that they were Muslims. They prayed to Allah, chanted praises to Allah, and adopted Muslim names. They played a game that simulated a jihad (a holy war against enemies of Islam) and they planned a pilgrimage to Mecca. Students were encouraged to dress like Muslims and to use Muslim phrases. They were required to memorize Muslim prayers. During Ramadan, they had to fast at lunchtime. Teachers told the students that, while they were taking this intensive course about Islam, they would “become Muslims.” The textbook about Islam did not mention Islamic conquests or Islamic violence against Jews or the treatment of women in Islamic countries. The Muslim religion was only shown in a good light. (Persecution, pages 76-77) I have heard from two sources that some American public schools are showing an anti-Israeli film that was produced by Hamas (a Muslim terrorist organization that sends suicide bombers to Israel). However, I have not been able to find written sources to verify this information. Public school students are being indoctrinated with New Age teachings and practices. Children are taught to put themselves into a trance and get counseling from imaginary friends, including Pumsy the Dragon. This teaches children to use “spirit guides,” which is a New Age practice. The Pumsy curriculum is used in 40 percent of American public schools. A similar curriculum, using Duso the dolphin, is also popular. (Persecution, pages 79-81) (Information about this is online.) [Note 21] Some Christians believe that spirit guides are really demons. Other Christians believe that they are a self-hypnotic deception. Either way, they aren’t Christian, and they aren’t wholesome. This is a pagan practice that is associated with some pagan religions. The Bible warns us not to participate in pagan religious practices. The Old Testament prophets rebuked the Israelites when they participated in pagan practices. There is a reader called “Impressions” that is used in the second and third grades of some public schools. It teaches the students how to cast spells. One of the exercises is to pretend that some children have had a magician cast a spell on them. In order to help the children, it is necessary to reverse that spell. The students are told to write the spell that the magician used, and then write another spell to reverse it. Then they are told to chant their spells. By making them chant the spells, the teacher is requiring them to do role playing. They are taking on the role of a sorcerer or a witch. (You can read about this online.) [Note 22] This exercise requires Christian students to act like witches or sorcerers. This is contrary to their religion, because the Bible strongly condemns witchcraft and sorcery. (See Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:9-13; Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 21:8) The exercise also promotes the Wiccan religion, which involves witchcraft, rituals, and spell casting. Wiccan rituals and spell casting can involve chanting. Another “Impressions” exercise involves a story about a witch who goes shopping for items such as bats’ wings in a grocery store. Students are supposed to discuss spells before reading the story. After reading it, they are told to create a chant that is based on what the witch wanted to buy. Some Christians believe that this will desensitize children to witchcraft and make it easier for them to become involved in such things later in life. They believe that the book promotes the acceptance of things that are contrary to Christian values. (This is online.) [Note 23] Wicca is a religion that is based on witchcraft, goddess worship, and nature worship. It is recognized as a tax-exempt religion, and there are Wiccan chaplains in the military and in prisons. Our country guarantees freedom of religion, and Wiccans have every right to practice their religion, and to tell their friends about it. However, these witchcraft exercises are, in effect, teaching the Wiccan religion in public schools, at tax-payer expense. The Constitution forbids the government to establish a religion. That includes teaching religion in public schools. If Christianity should not be taught in public schools, then neither should Wicca, or humanism (which is also a religion). Some school children have been taught to make “worry dolls” to ward off evil spirits, and to make representations of Hindu gods. One Earth Day assembly taught students that their mother is the earth and their father is the sun. Some schools teach children to perform Medicine Wheel ceremonies (a Native American ritual) and to use “dream catchers” as protection against evil spirits. Students are taught to do Native American ritual drumming and dancing. They are taught New Age teachings about crystals. (Persecution, pages 81-82) This overtly promotes pagan religions. It also makes Christian children do things that are contrary to their religion. The Bible tells us not to engage in pagan religious practices. A school in Pennsylvania had children from the third to fifth grades act out the Aztec practice of ritual human sacrifice. A school in California taught children about the Day of the Dead (a pagan custom that is commonly practiced in Mexico) and encouraged them to participate in rituals, including making altars. (Persecution, pages 83-84) Not only are these pagan practices, but they also glorify death. According to the Bible, death is an enemy. (See 1 Corinthians 15:26) In addition, participating in the enactment of human sacrifice desensitizes children to the horror of murder and the evil of human sacrifice. Some public schools teach reincarnation. This is is contrary to Scripture. The Bible says that we die once (as opposed to being recycled) and then we are judged. (Hebrews 9:27) One student said that death was portrayed as being glamorous, and living was portrayed as being hard. She said that students were taught that reincarnation would solve their problems, because they would return in a better life form and eventually they would “become like God.” (Persecution, page 84) I have watched children play video games where a good strategy for winning is to deliberately get your character killed so that he will come back into a better situation and in better condition (more strength, energy, “powers,” weapons, etc.). I have often wondered if doing that over and over and over might make an emotionally vulnerable child more susceptible to suicide. Some public schools teach “death education.” Some even have a “suicide talking day.” On that day, students write suicide notes. They write their own obituaries and discuss what they will look like in their caskets. One student said that before “suicide talking day,” she never considered the possibility of suicide. After that day, she began to contemplate it. She thought that it would “liberate her spirit” so that it would no longer be “enslaved to her body.” In addition, it would help with the problem of global overpopulation. She said that the suicide training made her “brave enough” to commit suicide. (Persecution, pages 84-85) Do you remember Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two students shot a number of their classmates and then committed suicide? That occurred in 1999. Since 1985, Columbine has been teaching death education classes. In 1988, the “Atlantic Monthly” had an article about death education. It said that thousands of schools had the classes. Some of them only lasted a few days. Others took a full semester. In addition, many schools incorporated death education into other classes, including health, home-economics, social studies, and literature. In 1977, the National Education Association wrote a report saying that, just as sex education resulted in “wider acceptance” of a number of sexual practices, death education classes will radically change attitudes towards death. (Persecution, pages 84-86) Earlier in this article I mentioned a teacher who called the Ten Commandments “hate literature.” Well, if you want students to feel free to commit suicide, then the Ten Commandments are a hindrance to your agenda. (“Thou shalt not kill” includes suicide.) A school in Massachusetts had an unusually high rate of suicide. The death education teacher said that it would not necessarily be better to have fewer students kill themselves. (Persecution, page 86) Wesley J. Smith wrote the book Culture of Death (Encounter Books, 2000). It is about modern bioethics and its impact on our society. There are “experts” in bioethics who actively promote death in various forms. These include “voluntary euthanasia” (killing patients who want to die, which is assisted suicide) and “involuntary euthanasia” (killing patients who have clearly said that they do not want to die, which is murder). It looks as if the bioethics approach towards suicide has influenced death education in our public schools. In addition, there are some physicians who could be called “suicide evangelists.” Dr. Kevorkian is well known, but there are others. Some popular sex education books include graphic pictures of sexual acts. Not many years ago, these pictures which would have been condemned as pornography. The books teach children how to perform the kinds of sexual acts that are done by gays and lesbians. Some sex education books also say that it is normal to have sex with animals. (You can read about this online.) [Note 24] Such things are contrary to Biblical morality. In America, all sexual orientations are legal, and people are free to practice them. Every religion (including humanism) has its own moral values, which includes approaches to sexuality. Parents should be free to teach their religion to their children, including the moral values of their religion. When the children grow up, then they can change their religion if they want to, and that may include changing their moral values. As adults, they can make informed decisions about such things. But while they are children, the public schools should not undermine the rights of parents to raise their own children according to their own moral and religious beliefs. Values clarification is a technique for getting school children to make moral decisions that conflict with Christian moral values (and Jewish moral values). It denies the reality of good and evil. It often manipulates children into making a decision between two morally wrong choices. One prominent educator has openly stated that the purpose of values clarification is to change the moral values of school children in a way that protects teachers from “getting caught.” In other words, the name of the game is to systematically destroy moral Christian moral values. (You can read about this online.) [Note 25] Goddess worship is being promoted in publicly funded, accredited colleges and universities. Some nursing school textbooks overtly promote goddess worship. Nursing schools also teach New Age practices. For example, "therapeutic touch" (passing one's hands above a patient's body in order to manipulate “auras” and “energy-fields”) has reportedly been taught to thousands of nurses in 80 North American nursing programs. [Note 26] Wicca has brought back the ancient pagan practice of worshiping pagan goddesses. This practice is condemned in the Bible. (See Jeremiah 7:16-18.) Schools that teach goddess worship are openly promoting the Wiccan religion. This is teaching religion in publicly funded schools. According to the Constitution, the government is not supposed to establish any religion. DRIVING WEDGES BETWEEN A high school health textbook encourages students to “test” their “ability to function sexually.” It recommends doing this in early teenage years, with children of the same sex. It tells students that they might come to the conclusion that growing up means rejecting their parents’ values. There have been reports that students are not allowed to take this health textbook home with them. (Persecution, page 78) In one school, classes about sexual harassment were substituted for algebra classes for four days. A student’s parent had the student removed from the class. The teacher urged the student to attend the class in spite of the parent’s objections. The teacher said that the child’s parents “don’t have to know.” (Persecution, page 78) An eighth grade student told his teacher that “health” materials that were given to the class were against the beliefs of his parents. The teacher told the student to inform him if the parents caused any problems. The teacher said that he would “handle them” (the parents). (Persecution, pages 78-79) I have a friend who is a high school teacher. He is a member of the National Education Association. He told me that the NEA sent its members information about how to “handle” parents who have moral or religious objections to what their children are being taught in school. PERSECUTING COLLETE STUDENTS A survey was made of college professors in 1988. Nearly a third of them said that Evangelical Christians are a “threat to democracy.” Many philosophy teachers advocate atheism. Some students say that their religion was ridiculed during class. One biology professor refused to recommend students for medical school unless they believed in evolution. (Understanding it was not sufficient. They had to say that they believed it.) College professors have lost their jobs because they told students that there are some flaws in the theory of evolution. (Persecution, pages 111-118) One teacher had educational material that included publications saying that Christians and conservatives are subjected to censorship and intimidation in the education establishment. This material was available, but students were not required to read it. The professor made a point of telling them that it was optional. His school administration demonstrated that his educational material made accurate statements. They forced him to stop using those materials. In other words, they censored the conservative viewpoint. Evidently, “tolerance” is a one-way street. It is not used when dealing with Christians and conservatives. (Persecution, pages 118-119) Ron Brown was assistant football coach at Stanford University. He was denied the head coaching job because of his Christian beliefs. School administrators openly told him that he was not acceptable because of his beliefs. A Christian student received a scholarship. However, when the college learned that he planned to major in religion and philosophy, he was told that scholarship grants are not given to religion students. (Persecution, pages 122-124) Christian clubs have been denied permission to meet on school grounds because of their religious beliefs. At Rutgers University, a Christian group was told that it was guilty of discrimination because it required its officers to be Christians. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sent threatening letters to 17 Christian groups, threatening to cut off financial support for them unless they did things that compromised their Christian beliefs. (Persecution, pages 124-126) Most universities have speech codes. There are hundreds of cases where professors or students were punished by university authorities for expressing views that were deemed to be politically incorrect. OTHER FORMS OF PERSECUTION A former teacher is a motivational speaker who encourages students to avoid drugs and other destructive behavior. He was not allowed to speak to the students because he is a Christian. The presentation was strictly secular, and he had made over 200 similar talks without mentioning religion, but he was rejected because he was a Christian. When one school cancelled his presentation, others followed its example and also cancelled. (Persecution, page 39) Some municipalities are using zoning laws to keep churches out of communities. Churches have even been ordered to leave areas that are zoned for churches. For example, Refuge is an inner-city church in St. Petersburg, Florida. It ministers to poor and needy people. Zoning said that, because of that, it is a social service agency and not a church. They required the church members to abandon their church building, because the area is not zoned for social service agencies. (Persecution, pages 205-207) A church in Portland, Oregon provided meals for low-income families and homeless people. The local government ordered it to stop providing meals. It ordered the church not to have more than 70 people attend services (even on Sunday). And it placed restrictions on evening Bible classes and other church activities. (Persecution, page 207) Zoning laws are also used to prevent Christians from having Bible studies and prayer meetings in their homes. A couple in Marietta, Georgia had a weekly Bible study for six to eight people. Guests parked in their driveway, so they did not take up parking space that was needed by neighbors. The meetings were not noisy. The city government told the couple that they were “operating a church” and ordered them to stop the Bible study. In Onalaska, Wisconsin, the zoning board ordered a couple to have their weekly Bible study (which only had seven people) meet once a month instead of every week. (Persecution, pages 209-210) VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS Chuck McIlhenny is a pastor in San Francisco. His church was vandalized and then set on fire. His home was set on fire in the middle of the night, while his family was sleeping. A fire bomb was used, and the fire spread rapidly. The family barely escaped in time to save their lives. (You can read about this online.) [Note 27] There have been some cases where American Christians were killed for their faith. These are genuine martyrs. (Don’t let suicide-bombers steal the word “martyr” from our vocabulary. Remember what it really means.) On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado shot and killed 12 of their classmates and a teacher, and wounded 23 other people. They also killed themselves. They asked three Christian girls if they believed in God, and killed them when they said “Yes”. The girls were Cassie Bernall, Rachel Scott, and Valeen Schnurr. Rachel had shared her Christian faith with the boys several weeks earlier. (Some classmates overheard the conversation.) The boys made a video in which they cursed Jesus Christ and cursed Christians. They singled Rachel Scott out for an insulting tirade, mocking her by name. (You can read about this online.) [Note 28] On September 15, 1999, there was a rally at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. A gunman entered the church and methodically shot Christians who were attending the service, and then shot himself. Seven people died and others were critically wounded. The gunman was shouting, cursing Christianity, and cursing the Christians for believing it. The FBI found anti-Christian writings in his home. (This is online.) [Note 29] So far, these cases have been few and far between. But there is a lot of anti-Christian indoctrination going on in our schools. That could eventually result in more frequent—and more serious—attacks against Christians. And if Christians are attacked, then Jews are also likely to be attacked. WHAT CAN WE DO? The mighty men of David were skillful in fighting with both their right hands and their left hands. (1 Chronicles 12:2) We can do something similar. We can fight in two different ways at the same time. For example, if a government official tries to close down a church, then the church can fight in the law courts. It can also fight on its knees, with prayer and fasting. We will need to strengthen our “forgiveness muscles.” We have to avoid bitterness at any cost, because it is deadly and it is contageous. It is caused by failure to cooperate with God’s grace, and it results in defiling other people. The Bible says:
George Washington Carver was born in 1864. Shortly before he was born, his father was killed in an accident. When he was still an infant, his mother was kidnapped by slave raiders and she was never seen again. Was Carver bitter? No. He said:
Forgiveness is not easy, and it does not come naturally. We may have to ask God to change our hearts and enable us to do it. Sometimes forgiveness requires perseverence and continued prayer. Sometimes it is a process, like working your way through the layers of an onion. The apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith. This was immediately after Jesus had told them that they had to keep on forgiving their brothers. It is in that context that Jesus said that if we have faith like a mustard seed, we can command a tree to be uprooted and thrown into the sea. (Luke 17:1-6) What kind of things will we need to uproot? During persecution, we will need to uproot fear and anger and bitterness. We may need to uproot paralyzing emotions and traumatic memories. Jesus promised that if we have faith in Him (even small faith, like a mustard seed), then He will enable us to get rid of these things. We need to built up our faith and our commitment to God by reading Scripture and having it become more and more a part of our daily lives. Scripture should be our compass, our plumb line, our constant reference point for daily living. It needs to become a living part of us, like a branch that is grafted into a tree. (See James 1:21) We need to strengthen our personal relationship with God. This can be done through prayer, worship, and obedience to Scripture. We can ask God to help us love Him more, understand Him better, and have a more obedient heart. God promised to make everything work for our good if we love Him. (Romans 8:28) He is able to keep us from falling. (Jude 1:24) What the world means for evil, God can use for good. (Genesis 50:20) The Church in China is an example of this. Mao Zedong destroyed churches, burned Bibles, and put pastors in prison. The Christians went underground and became stronger. In the late 1970s, there were two million Christians in China. Now there are over sixty million Christians. Mao’s efforts to destroy the Church were used by God to build, strengthen, and purify the Church. Our God is faithful, and His love is so great that we cannot comprehend it. NOTES 1. A Wisconsin Prison has hired a Wiccan chaplain who calls herself Rev. Witch.
2. A federal court ruled that Virginia Military Institute can no longer have a nondenominational prayer before meals.
Three judges made the original decision. There was an appeal to have the full court reconsider the case. The court has refused to reconsider the case. (These links worked in 2003 but they are no longer working.) 3. There is concern that the ACLU will continue to sue military academies. They could even try to prevent chaplains on aircraft carriers from praying with military pilots who are about to fly into dangerous situations.
4. A fourth-grade student was ridiculed, disciplined, and put into detention for a week because he prayed before meals in the school cafeteria. 5. A kindergarten student was ordered not to say grace before meals. She was used to saying, out loud, “God is great. God is good. And we thank Him for this food.” Finally, after her parents sued the school, she was allowed to pray.
6. Two girls in middle school were told that their Bibles are “garbage.” The teacher threw the Bibles into the trash can, and took the girls to the principal’s office. Three students at the same school had school books with the Ten Commandments on the covers. School officials threw the book covers into the trash, saying that the Ten Commandments are “hate speech.”
7. A federal judge in Texas said that any student who uses the word “Jesus” during the school’s graduation ceremonies would be arrested and sent to jail.
This article has brief summaries of cases where Christian students have been persecuted. To find the information about the school in Texas, search for “Jesus.” 8. A California court has forbidden the public use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. 9. There is a lawsuit to prevent Congress from having paid chaplains.
10. John Dunphy, “A Religion for A New Age,” in The Humanist (January/February 1983). Quotations from this article are online. This has the quotation from Dunphy. It also has some eye-opening quotations from other secular humanists. “Secular Humanists Give Dunphy Another Platform.” This article is only one page. The quotation is about half-way down the page. 11. John Dunphy, “Dunphy Strikes Again,” in Secular Humanist Bulletin (Summer 1994). This article is discussed online, with extensive quotations, including a paragraph from “A Religion for A New Age.” 12. Quotations from humanists who say that public education will be used to replace Christianity with humanism. Other quotations from humanists. They are contained in an article by a Christian who was shocked to discover that children who are raised in Christian families often do not share the religious and moral values of their parents. He discovered that the reason is humanist teaching in public schools. 13. “The Courts Define Humanism As a Religion.” (An article written for humanists by a humanist.) Articles about the religious history of humanism, including citations from court cases. Originally humanism claimed to be a religion. It received tax-exempt status as a religion. When Christians said that teaching humanist beliefs in schools constitutes teaching a religion, then humanists started claiming that humanism is not a religion.
This article says that humanism is the established religion of the United States, and public schools are the main vehicle for promoting it. 14. There are humanist ministers who have the same rights and privileges as Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, and rabbis. There is a “Church of Scientific Humanism” There is a “Church of Spiritual Humanism” which ordains ministers. 15. In 1961, the Supreme Court declared that humanism is a secular religion. The following article has a quotation from the Court. 16. This link had a lot of good quotations in 2003. Unfortunately, the link no longer works.. 17. Dr. Chester M. Pierce said that American are “insane” because they are loyal to America, to their parents, and to their belief in God. You can read his statement at the following websites. (In some articles you may need to search for his name in order to find the quotation.)
18. Paul Brandwein is a leading child psychologist. He said that every child who believes in God is mentally ill.
19. In the U.S.S.R., Christians were sent to mental hospitals because of their faith. I learned about this from newsletters from Christian ministries that help persecuted Christians. I read about one Christian man who was given drugs that damaged his mind so much that he was unable to remember his own name. This article tells of Soviet Christians who were sent to mental hospitals. One man was there for 25 years because he refused to denounce his faith.
20. Communist China is putting people into mental hospitals because of their religion. Some of these people are tortured in the hospitals. Articles from Falun Gong websites. They mention that members of the Falun Gong and other religious groups (including Christians) are being put into mental hospitals because of their religion. Some of them are being tortured in the hospitals. People who are political dissidents (politically incorrect) are also being put into mental hospitals.
An article by Human Rights Watch. This article mentions the Falun Gong but fails to mention Christians. However, according to two Falun Gong websites (above), Christians are also considered to be “religious dissidents” and they are also locked up in mental hospitals. The article says that the reason why these people were brought to the mental hospitals for evaluation is that they expressed views which “offended the political sensitivities” of the Communists. Since Communists are atheists, Christianity offends them. These articles mention “dissidents” and “nonconformists” but don’t specifically mention Christians. However, Christians are nonconformists in a Communist society because they believe in God, and because their primary loyalty is to God rather than to the state.
21. This article has information about the curriculum that uses Pumsey the Dragon. In addition, paragraphs 2-5 have some very important information about public education and New Age indoctrination, with informative quotations from secular humanists and New Agers. (The link worked in 2003 but it no longer works.) 22. This article is about Halloween. It also discusses occultism in public schools. To find the information about the “Impressions” curriculum, do a search for “chant.” [Hit CTRL + F. Type “chant” and then hit ENTER.] 23. The “Impressions” reader is being used in second and third grade classes. It has children discuss spells and create chants. 24. Information about sex education, with descriptions of books How American sex education changed from teaching students about hygiene to encouraging them to experiment with various kinds of sexual behavior. 25. Values clarification denies the reality of good and evil. It gets school children to make decisions that are contrary to Christian morality. This is a good, comprehensive article. However, it is somewhat difficult to read in Adobe Acrobat. I recommend printing it. The article is only 7 pages long.
This article has some quotations from humanists about the use of public schools to indoctrinate children in humanism. It includes some information about values clarification. 26. Philip G. Davis, Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality (Dallas, Texas: Spence Publishing Company, 1998), pages 29-33. The author is a university professor who wrote this book because he was concerned about Wiccan teaching at his university. 27. Frank York, Chuck McIlhenny, and Donna McIlhenny, When the Wicked Seize the City (iUniverse.com, 2000). An article describing mob violence against the church in 1993. An article about violence against Christians. It includes information about the fire bombing. 28. Christian teenagers were shot at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
29. A gunman shot Christians at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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KC 001 04/29/2007