If you think the era of totalitarianism is over, you haven\u2019t been paying attention to the headlines.<\/p>\n
In the first century, Jesus was asked whether the Jewish people, who were under pagan, Roman occupation, should pay taxes to Caesar. The Lord, of course, said we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar\u2019s, and unto God what is God\u2019s. But in 21st century America, Caesar is angling for a better deal \u2014 and he\u2019s getting it.<\/p>\n
Our old friend Chuck Colson sounded the alarm several years ago when certain political figures on the Left \u2014 including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton \u2014 began downsizing the First Amendment\u2019s guarantee of our God-given right to freedom of religion into a more manageable \u201cfreedom of worship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chuck feared \u2014 rightly, it turns out \u2014 that opponents of religious liberty were seeking to keep religion within the four walls of our churches, synagogues, and mosques \u2014 as if religious belief were no more than a purely private opinion with no practical implications for the real world. In other words, \u201cFeel free to worship, if you like, but keep your religiously informed opinions and actions to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a totalitarian impulse, and you can see it in the intensifying efforts to force faith groups to pay for abortions, to shut down Christian businesses that don\u2019t want to participate in so-called \u201cgay weddings,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n
And the totalitarians are getting bolder about it. In Victoria, Australia, doctors are required by law to perform abortions when asked, or refer the patient to a colleague who will. In Canada, meanwhile, the Ontario and Saskatchewan Colleges of Doctors and Surgeons want physicians forced to perform euthanasia \u2014 which is now a fundamental national \u201cright\u201d \u2014 if no one else is available to do it.<\/p>\n
And the totalitarians \u2014 being totalitarians \u2014 will brook no compromise. According to Canadian bioethicist Udo Schuklenk, \u201cThe very idea that we ought to countenance conscientious objection in any profession is objectionable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Really? And alas, this totalitarian streak is not confined to the Great White North. Mrs. Clinton, who once said that abortion can be \u201ca sad, even tragic choice,\u201d now asserts that a so-called \u201cright to reproductive health care\u201d trumps religious freedom. \u201cLaws have to be backed up with resources and political will,\u201d she said at a recent meeting of the Women in the World Summit. \u201cAnd deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.\u201d Religious beliefs have to be changed?<\/p>\n
Now Caesar seeks to regulate not just our actions, but our thoughts as well!<\/p>\n
New York Times columnist and gay-rights advocate Frank Bruni thinks we need to change our religious beliefs about marriage, too \u2014 since, he says, interpreting the Bible is filled with subjectivity and uncertainty. Therefore believers shouldn\u2019t take it too literally on matters of sexuality. \u201cSo our debate about religious freedom,\u201d Bruni says, \u201cshould include a conversation about freeing religions and religious people from prejudices that they needn\u2019t cling to and can indeed jettison, much as they\u2019ve jettisoned other aspects of their faith\u2019s history, rightly bowing to the enlightenments of modernity.\u201d<\/p>\n
How nice that Mr. Bruni and other sexual totalitarians stand ready to \u201cfree us\u201d from our prejudices. What\u2019s next, re-education camps? If you think I\u2019m exaggerating the totalitarian threat, in the same newspaper, David Brooks writes, \u201cIf orthodox Christians are suddenly written out of polite society as modern-day Bull Connors, this would only halt progress, polarize the debate and lead to a bloody war of all against all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lord have mercy.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
RESOURCES<\/p>\n
Hillary: \u2018Religious Beliefs\u2019 Must Change For Sake Of Abortion
\nEd Morrissey, Hot Air, Fox News, April 27, 2015<\/p>\n
Bigotry, the Bible and the Lessons of Indiana
\nFrank Bruni, New York Times, April 3, 2015<\/p>\n
Kill or get out of medicine!
\nWesley Smith, lifesitenews.com, April 20, 2015<\/p>\n
Memo to Hillary Clinton: On Marriage, Here Christians Stand and We\u2019re Not Moving
\nRob Schwarzwalder, Christianpost.com, April 24, 2015<\/p>\n
Hillary Clinton: \u2018Religious Beliefs\u2019 About Abortion \u2018Have To Be Changed\u2019
\nJohn McCormack, Weekly Standard, April 24, 2015<\/p>\n
The Week in \u2018Tolerance:\u2019 Boycotts, Bans and Bullying
\nGuy Benson, Townhall.com, Apr 27, 2015<\/p>\n
Religious Liberty and Equality
\nDavid Brooks, New York Times, March 31, 2015<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2015 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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