“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.”
There is a war going on for the heart and future of our country. Most people know that. It’s a spiritual war. The attack on the presence and influence of Christianity in America is unprecedented in history. As secular America isolates faith from the public square it progresses rapidly backwards. In the years of my adulthood I have seen firsthand the sexual revolution of the 60’s and a devaluation of marriage and committed marriage relationships. I have seen the political trust and idealism of the 50’s and early 60’s degenerate into cynicism and a strong mistrust, even disgust, of the political process. I have seen crimes against children and sexual abuse reach epidemic levels as the moral condition of our culture continues to unravel. I have seen an unprecedented assault on the integrity of the family as the basic unit of society, with a resulting process of redefining marriage so that every sexual preference and every vision of family is equally validated. That sounds like a great ideal in this pluralistic culture, but the social consequences are devastating for our children. And I have seen the emasculation of men in the offerings of all forms of media. Situation comedies, commercials, and movies in the majority portray men as dimwitted, sexually obsessed buffoons. An appalling number of children live without a dad in their lives, and the call to men to live lives of nobility, sacrifice, and compassionate leadership has been silenced.
I am not far from the truth and I am not being alarmist when I look at all the change and evidence and conclude that we are living in a world system that has eroded the leadership of men, has eagerly dismantled the Christian concept of the family, no longer holds common ethics and values, is experiencing an epidemic of crimes against children, labors under a broken political system, and has become sexually obsessed, self-absorbed, and greedy. Do I have that right?
Then let me ask you the million dollar question: Is that the kind of world you want to stand for? Let me ask it again in different words: Is this the kind of world you wish to pass on to your children and grandchildren?
Then let me ask you another question: What has been the role of Christians in this destruction of society? Here is the answer…WE HAVE GONE ALONG WITH IT! We have participated in the destruction of morality and values. We have done that so well that our lives are not really any different than the lives of non-believers. We do not practice pure faith. We practice accommodation. Far too many of us follow Jesus when it is convenient and our own way when that is convenient. We don’t want to stand out. So we wear the name but so many of us fail to stand for the remarkable life of the Kingdom of God.
The American church is being persecuted, but we are so fat and have been so absorbed by popular culture that we no longer have the heart to stand for Christ and say, ‘No Further!’
Just as the beatitude says, we are being mocked. Did any of you read “The DaVinci Code?” That book is based on the premise that the crucifixion and the resurrection did not occur. Instead, Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had children, and lived in obscurity. I take offense to that. I believe it is a mockery of Jesus. Let me ask you this: If a story as mocking as that was written about Muhammad, what do you think the reaction would be?
A few years back Ted Turner, former owner of CNN said “Christians are bozos and Christianity is a religion for losers.” No big deal. But what if he had said the same about Jews, calling them bozos and losers because of their faith? There would be universal outrage. But we have become so used to negative press, we don’t even flinch. It is socially acceptable to mock Jesus and to mock his people in America.
I much prefer the words of King David: “Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
The church is experiencing persecution world-wide because we follow Jesus. In the Sudan African slaves, especially Christian slaves are viewed by their Muslim masters as lower than animals. Remember the protest of the Muslim world over the cartoons published in Denmark portraying Muhammad in a negative light? In Nigeria more than 50 Christians were killed in response, with more being killed in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Iraq. In North Korea, since the signing of the armistice in 1953 more than 300,000 Christians have ‘disappeared.’ Anyone found with a Bible will be imprisoned and conveniently ‘disappeared.’
India continues to be dangerous for Christians right now as Christian orphanages and missions are under attack, with local governments freezing bank accounts and threatening Christians with arrest and confiscation of property. The church is growing rapidly in India, and is perceived as a threat by the Hindu and Muslim communities. In some parts of India pastors are being told that they and their families will be killed if they conduct church services, and believers are under threat of death if they set foot inside a church.
Very recently in Pakistan Christians were bombed in their churches while worshipping, and Christians are second class citizens with no representation in the legislative and judicial process.
I could go on longer with accounts of persecution in Myanmar, Palestine, Belarus, Turkey, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Vietnam. Worldwide our family, the body of Christ, is under severe pressure, and it is going to experience growing opposition and pressure in America…IF we are faithful and follow Jesus.
This is part one. Tomorrow I will write about our response to the negative press and persecution…and the rewards of faithfulness. For now, do not pretend that if you are not personally under pressure for your faith that it must be the same everywhere else. We are a global community, and the more faithful we are, the more opposition we will face. More tomorrow.