The path we are on. . .

As a church body with unpopular stands for life, for marriage, for gender, and a host of other hot button issues today, there are those who think that the repeated warnings from voices like mine are overkill.  It will never come to that.  At least that is what those folks say who are fearful of becoming visible enemies of the culture and society.  But it is the path we are on.

First the unpopular stand and those who espouse it are given a false caricature of their position and this becomes the label that marks them.  It is a stereotype or even a straw man that is characterized but that ends up being the way the group is known.  You know it as well as I do.  From the comedians who make fun of Christians as neurotic or guilt ridden or prudes to the media that pictures Christians in this way so often that it becomes the image.  Add to that the other typical characterizations of Christians as misogynistic, homophobic, racist, angry, bitter, controlling, Islamophobic, intolerant, and, well, the list goes on, and you end up with the idea that Christianity is a prison of ideas and behavior that shackles a person and restrains the freedom that the liberal and progressives are there to protect.  If you can laugh at a Christian or make a caricature of a Christian that sticks, you do not have to even rebuke or rebut their ideas.

After you have done an effective job of stereotyping Christians, you move to the next step.  You hold them responsible for every ill society has known.  You vilify the Christians for the crimes of a few -- whether it is clergy sex abuse or the homes for unwed mothers or schools for the needy or homes for the elderly or orphanages.  Suddenly Christians are singly responsible for every hate crime, sexual perversion, and abuse that has ever been known to man -- it is endemic and structural and cannot be redeemed.  It can only be condemned.  Christianity has become the intolerable faith while other faiths, like Islam, that have a well documented and repressive past and present get a pass.  Christianity is guilty.  Christianity must not be tolerated anymore.  Remove any mention of God from public square and make anyone's association with the Church a political and economic liability.  Everyone else is free to pass out their rainbow flags and condoms and fliers and to have sanctioned groups but those related to Christianity are no longer allowed (unless, of course, they believe and act and teach differently than orthodox Christianity!.

If that does not work, you simply make it impossible for the Christians and their churches to do what they have always done.  The law becomes a weapon against the institutions that have traditionally been the mark of Christian charity unless they renounce their doctrines and practices and disassociate themselves from their respective religious jurisdictions.  We have already seen the handiwork of those who try to remove every Christian symbol from the public square from the creches of Christmas to the crosses on tombstones to the regulations that would require Christian charitable organizations to ignore their creeds and confessions in how they do their work.  The courts have so far revealed an uneven record on the success of criminalizing Christian faith and practice -- standing up for some of the most egregious attempts to marginalize Christianity but passively allowing other things to pass.  Even the IRS has become a tool in the box of weapons that might or could or will be used to threaten Churches into silence.  Sadly, too many churches are more afraid of losing their tax exempt status than they are compromising their faith.

If that doesn't work, you can always persecute the Christians and their churches.  We saw that in Finland when a Lutheran was put on trial for publishing what the Bible says.  It does not need to be legal to be effective.  Why else would churches be targeted for everything from graffiti to demonstrations that attempt to interrupt church services to singling out Christians for the Scriptures that condemn the modern day views of sexuality, marriage, and gender?  Persecution may enjoy the benefit of laws that excuse it or it may be clandestine but those who say it cannot happen here are deluding themselves.  It can and it will.  It is a matter of time.  Even Jesus insisted that Christianity cannot be friends with the world and will suffer the same fate He suffered.  While Christians have been pretty good at forgetting what they choose, the words of Scripture remain and are read in various lectionaries.  

My point is not to say this will happen or it will happen soon but to say it cannot happen is to ignore history.  You can begin with what happened in the book of Acts.  Neither am I suggesting that we use political tools to counter this. Yes, we should appeal to the law and to the rights guaranteed to us but this is not about voting in Christian politicians or passing Christian laws or making a Christian nation out of the USA.  What it is about is warning Christians and encouraging them to be faithful under trials, to be steadfast and immovable in Christ, and to be unflagging in hope and they testify to the Gospel in word and deed.  Jesus does not tell us to engage in political maneuvering to gain the hand over our opponents but to pray for our leaders and for ourselves that we may endure to the end and be saved.  Scripture is clear in telling us that God will not abandon us and that we should not fear those who can kill only the body and not the soul.  The Word of the Lord is also clear in telling us that the battles we lose today will not end the victory of Christ for eternity.  He has won; His saving work is done.  It cannot be undone.  But everyone of us will find it harder rather than easier to endure, to maintain the faith, to continue the witness, and to endure to the end.  It requires of us more faith, not less; more hope, not less; and more love, not less.  The way is narrow, the path is not easy, but His burden is light and His yoke is easy and we are right now obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.  Watch, learn, and be strong, people of God.