America, where Christians are safe. Not only safe, but where Christian ideals are front and center, a difference maker, a vital, indispensable part of our founding principles. You know, America, the protector of religious freedom.
The nation founded by leaders such as George Washington, who once told the Delaware Indian chiefs "You do well to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ." Such as Thomas Jefferson, who said "I am a real Christian - that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ." Such as Benjamin Franklin, who said "As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see."
The United States of America, a nation clearly founded by Christian men and women, and clearly built up over the centuries by many more of the same, such as Abraham Lincoln: "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty."
Yet it is here, in that very America, where a large, increasingly hostile, increasingly antagonistic segment of society is actively moving on the attack against Christian morals and ethics. I believe that we are seeing the beginnings of an attempt to erase the practice of the Christian faith itself in America and around the globe. If it falls here in the United States, what other nation can hope to keep the faith standing?
As reported by Todd Starnes with Fox News, the Christian Service Center has been providing food for the past 31 years to the hungry in Lake City, Florida with no problems. But suddenly, the USDA has told the group that in order to continue receiving the government food which the group dispenses, they must remove portraits of Christ and pictures of the Ten Commandments from their facility, remove a banner that reads "Jesus is Lord", and must refrain from their practice of giving out Bibles to the needy.
In Burleson, Texas, as Starnes reports, the 'Retta Baptist Church' recently produced a motion picture titled "My Son", about a young woman who with her small child moves in with a young man and finds happiness, only to find the newly forming family caught up first in a custody battle, and ultimately in a hostage crisis. The intention was to market the film to Christian churches and communities around the nation.
The problem? The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) slapped an 'R' rating on the film, saying that was due to violence and drug use in the film. The 'R' may be a death stamp for the film, as many Christian congregations and movie reviewers will refuse to recommend any movie with that rating to it's viewers. So while the MPAA gives more 'commercial' films such as "World War Z" and "Jobs" ratings of PG-13 despite killings and zombies and drug usage, it slaps a Christian film with the 'R' rating.
These are just two of many, many subtle and overt attacks that have begun to take place against Christianity itself, and the people and organizations that support the faith in America. Emboldened by success in court cases, the antagonists keep pushing their agenda of a faithless society, one where anything goes.
Christianity is clearly under attack in America and around the world. This is apparent to anyone who opens their eyes and minds, puts forth a little effort, does just a little bit of research into the phenomenon. The millions of American Christians need to begin to stand together, and to fight back for our faith, for one another, and on behalf of Jesus Christ himself, the savior who gave his life for us.
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