Religious Persecution in the U.S.? Christians are Fair Game

Although more than 79 percent of people in the United States identify themselves as Christians, there’s a growing body of evidence that the media and the government, including the military, are doing their best to turn Americans against Christianity.

TV comedians and shows like The Simpsons regularly mock Christians, and Saturday Night Live even aired a “comedy” skit recently that depicted Jesus attacking Romans with a machine gun and slicing a man’s head in half. Can you imagine what would have happened if the skit had showed Mohammed instead of Jesus? Remember the bloody riots in September 2012 over a YouTube video about Mohammed? Yet no one objects when the media, and even our own government, disrespect Christian religious figures, as well as anyone who upholds Christian principles.

Sing Oldham, a spokesman for the Southern Baptist Convention, said, “It’s open season on those who profess personal faith in Jesus Christ and pattern their lives by biblical morality. Evangelical Christians are treated with contempt and targeted for ridicule.” Even Ira Glass, an atheist and secular Jew, recently mentioned that Christians are portrayed as, “doctrinaire crazy hothead people.” He went on to talk about the Christians he knows personally and how they are nothing like the way they’re portrayed in the media; indicating that Christians are unfairly treated. If you need additional proof, look no further than NFL quarterback Tim Tebow. Critics couldn’t wait for him to fail, not because of his football skills, but because they felt uncomfortable with his open displays of religious faith.

There were disturbing reports this summer about the U.S. military turning against Christian groups that support traditional family values. An Army training instructor gave a presentation to a Pennsylvania reserve unit about extremist groups like Al Queda and the Ku Klux Klan, but he also listed Catholics and Evangelical Christians as dangerous extremists. This list was apparently taken from the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has ties to the radical left. The same list was referenced in an email sent by a lieutenant colonel at Fort Campbell, Kentucky to his subordinates, warning them to watch out for “hate groups,” including some well-respected Christian groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association.

At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a 2011 memo declared that, “No religious items (i.e., Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit” to injured service members. The policy was changed after a Republican lawmaker denounced it in Congress, but what kind of thinking would deny a wounded warrior the comfort of a Bible, a prayer book or a rosary?

This administration has gone from “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. In July of this year, the White House opposed an amendment to a National Defense Authorization Act that would have protected religious “actions and speech” in the military because it might limit commanders’ ability to discipline service members accused of discriminating against homosexuals. Franklin Graham of Billy Graham’s organization recently wrote, “If we hold up God’s standards, we are accused of being intolerant. ‘Tolerance’ is one of today’s hot buttons, but in reality the true and fast-growing ‘intolerance’ is for Christianity—anything that stands for Jesus Christ.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) pointed out, “There is a war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here at home, but worldwide. It angers me to see my tax dollars supporting regimes that put Christians to death for blasphemy against Islam, countries that put to death Muslims who convert to Christianity and countries who imprison anyone who marries outside their religion.”

I urge you all to pay attention to what’s going on in this country. The media has a valuable role in this society and if they abuse that role to target a group of people because they don’t agree with their views, that is discrimination and needs to be stopped. It’s a disease and we have the power to end it.

If you see Christians ridiculed in the media, or politicians allowing anti-Christian measures to be passed, speak up! Our country, founded on Judeo-Christian values, became the greatest country in the world. The erosion and mockery of these values, left un-checked, will surely result in the fall of our great nation.

Sources

1. www.pewforum.org/Christian/Global-Christianity-exec.aspx

2. www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/17/djesus-uncrossed-on-snl-spoofs-tarantino-in-christ-revenge-fantasty_n_2706814.html

3.  www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/19/nbc-declares-war-on-christians/

4.  www.cnn.com/2011/12/06/opinion/bennett-tebow-role-model/index.html

5. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304739/Army-Reserve-training-material-lists-Catholics-evangelical-Christians-Jews-religious-extremism-category-KKK-Hamas-Al-Qaeda.html

6. http://harpers.org/archive/2000/11/the-church-of-morris-dees/

7. http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/the-armys-list-of-domestic-hate-groups.html

8. www.snopes.com/politics/info/bibles.pdf

9. www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/louie-gohmert-obama_n_3576985.html

10.  www.billygraham.org/articlepage.asp?articleid=9434

11. www.paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=853

12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As1lwvqHKQA

Originally Published

http://www.nevadabusiness.com/2013/10/religious-persecution-u-s-christians-fair-game/