William Wolfe, a writer for The Christian Post, had this to say in a post titled The Federal Persecution of Christians Will Stop. Here’s Why. Wolfe stated;
Christians are, without question, the most persecuted religious group in America.
During 12 of the last 16 years under the anti-Christian Obama and Biden regimes (with a four-year reprieve during Trump’s first term), Christians were explicitly and relentlessly targeted by the life-crushing power of the government. If it wasn’t the feds, it was hostile blue states like Colorado, Virginia, New York, and others that did the devil’s dirty work. And if it wasn’t the feds or the states, it was universities, corporations, and the media.
Oh my, poor persecuted Christians. Require them to obey the law, and Evangelicals scream persecution. Evidently, they believe that the laws of the land don’t apply to them, even though the Apostle Paul stated:
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. (Romans 131-2)
As a pastor, I taught church members that we were duty-bound to obey man’s law as long as it didn’t conflict with God’s law. In Acts 5, we find Peter and his fellow apostles at odds with the high priest:
Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
The High Priest demanded that Peter and the other apostles stop preaching about Jesus. The apostles replied: We ought to obey God rather than men. Sadly, many Evangelicals interpret this verse to mean that if any law, rule, or regulation conflicts with what they think God wants them to do, they should obey God, and not man. This errant thinking has led to all sorts of conflict between church and state. I gladly stand with Christians if and when the government demands they stop preaching the Bible. However, this is rarely why church and state come into conflict. No, these skirmishes come when Evangelicals think the government is getting in the way of them doing whatever they want to do. They wrongly believe that their beliefs supersede man’s law — without exception. Years ago, I was friends with a man who started a church in southeast Ohio. He dragged a modular home onto a plot of land and turned it into a church — complete with alterations. I warned him that he would run afoul of building codes, but he ignored me, saying that he was “following the will of God.” This preacher eventually learned that hearing voices in his head is no match for the law. He refused to comply, leading to the county demolishing his ramshackle church building.
In 1989, I started a non-chartered, tuition-free, private Christian school for our church’s children. As an unchartered religious school, our school, Somerset Baptist Academy, was not subject to state education laws. One day, an inspector for the Ohio EPA showed up at our school to inform me that our school fell under the regulations for public water supplies. We were required to test our water every three months for contaminants and submit the report to the state. Was the government “persecuting” us? Of course not. There was nothing in the law and its enforcement that hindered our practice of Christianity.
I was a street preacher for many years. My public ministry on street corners led to frequent conflict with law enforcement and community leaders. I was threatened with arrest more times than I can count. I always stood my ground. Why? The government was trying to stop me from exercising my faith — a clear violation of the First Amendment. I refused to bow a knee to Caesar. Had a police officer demanded I move my car because it was parked illegally, I would have complied. Why? The Bible commanded me to obey the laws of the land.
I never had a problem differentiating between God’s law and man’s law. Sadly, many Evangelicals think that they are free to disobey man’s law anytime they want. After all, it is easy to come up with a Bible verse to justify illegal behavior. This is especially true with anti-abortionists. Many communities have laws regulating pickets at abortion clinics. Anti-abortionists wrongly think that they don’t have to obey these laws, and when arrested, they scream PERSECUTION! Persecution, my ass. They are free to picket the clinics. All they have to do is stand a certain distance away from the clinics, limiting harassment of clinic users and staff.
The same applies to Evangelical pharmacists, nurses, and doctors who object to prescribing abortion drugs. They shouldn’t be forced to prescribe these drugs, but since prescribing them is a job requirement, they have a choice: prescribe or quit. It is not persecution to require them to do their job. We see similar skirmishes over issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples or baking cakes. If religious beliefs keep Evangelicals from doing their job, they need to choose another profession. It is not persecution if you lose your job for refusing to obey the law or follow your employer’s rules.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Evangelical Christian: “I think that God demands that LGBTQ people shouldn’t exist, and if they exist, they have to be silent and invisible. God said, not me!”
Government: “LGBTQ people have equal rights. If you discriminate against them, there will be consequences.”
Evangelical Christian: “You’re persecuting me for being Christian!”
Yep. That’s how many Evangelical Christians think.
My examples of Xtians and others believe laws are persecuting them.
In New York, some graduates of Yeshivas complained to the local education authorities that Yeshivas did not prepare them for work because not enough
regular classes about things like English, Math were taught and they could not get jobs. Now there is a big political mess going on in New York because Yeshiva which usually are hasidic jews do not want these classes taught.
The same thing goes on in Xtian schools because they think they do not have to teach anything about science they do not like, such as biological evolution, the age of the universe, and other things like black history in the United States, the list goes on and on.
Each group thinks it is right, and they have a right to push their views on everyone else. They do not have an obligation to follow environmental laws, even if they harm others by polluting.
One of the big problems is vaccination. People I call absolutists will not recognize science. No child should be allowed to go to any school until they have been vaccinated. There have been outbreaks of measles in the USA this year because of refusing to vaccinate.
But Bruce, don’t you realize that if you didn’t test the water and someone died, they would’ve gone straight to Heaven because, you know, it was God’s will. (sarcasm)
OC–Remember, I don’t exist. (More sarcasm)
Barbara–Years ago, I worked with someone who grew up in, and left, an ultra-Orthodox community. He believed that the yeshiva he attended deliberately skimped on English, Math and other secular subjects because doing so rendered people like him unable to find employment, or otherwise function, outside the community. “I had to educate myself,” he once explained, not only in those academic subjects, but also in life skills: “I had no idea of how to approach a woman,” he explained. But the rabbis who ran the school, and community, insisted they weren’t doing people like him a disservice because no knowledge, in their eyes, is as important as that of the Torah.
Oh boy… My first thought is, LOLOLOL!!! Yep, very persecuted indeed. Poor American Christians.
My mom tried telling me that Christians are being persecuted. I agreed. I told her how sad it was that she and her friends have to hide in the garage to pray and disguise their bibles as some other book. I said it might just be a matter of weeks until she and her friends are no longer allowed to sing Christian songs or go to church at all.
I don’t think she liked hearing that. I enjoyed saying it, though.
I read the daily lives of the saints, most of whom were martyrs. Even if some of the ancient accounts were exaggerations, later ones were definitely not. St. Maximillian Kolbe- a Polish priest who was arrested by the Nazis, took another person’s place in a starvation barracks in Auschwitz, and was finally poisoned by the guards because he wasn’t dying fast enough, and they were annoyed by his daily hymn singing.
That’s what real persecution looks like, not having to be kind and respectful to people who live and believe differently from you.
Thank you, Bruce, for your thoughtful post.
As a Christian, I have to admit I don’t see anti-Christian persecution.
It doesn’t take much imagination to envision instances in which it could become essential to obey what we see as God’s law in the face of immoral legal requirements. Dr. King taught us that a willingness to pay legal penalties for breaking the law is sufficient obedience to civil authority.
I don’t recall any recent instances, but I would have a grudging respect for anyone who might break the law and then demand jail for themselves.
One exception in history would have involved putting others into harm’s way. Hiding Anne Frank comes to mind.
What I see of today’s activities strike me as indefensible, as when those who think they are obeying God insist that they be allowed to break laws the rest of us follow, demanding to do so without penalty.
That is not persecution. It is simply breaking the law.
Spot on, Burr. I oppose persecution in all its forms, whether it Christians or atheists who are being persecuted. What American Evangelicals call persecution is anything but.