In the face of persecution

1 Timothy 1:7 tells you, Christian, that you have been given the gift of boldness…of power.
Today, more than any other time I have known in my life, there is a call for Christian heroes. We’ve all been witnessing a building of aggressive intolerance against virtually every aspect of the Christian faith. It’s almost a paradox, that in today’s world we may witness the growing, dynamic works of God's Spirit around the world in seeing people’s conversion to Christ, enjoying the expanded use of the mass media and the new technologies for sharing Christian views, there has also been social, legal and political pressure placed upon Christians either to conform to the dominant cultural views or, at the very least, to shut up.

This growing social pressure is very real. Whether through the arts, the media, or government, the message is clear: Christians, are being cast in the role of extremists, zealots and idiots. Ordinary Christian beliefs of our traditions long and even recent past are now described by some as hate speech. We face persecution that is growing.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court Appeals in Richmond, Virginia has ruled that the Virginia Military Institute’s tradition of having the cadet chaplain read a prayer before dinner is unconstitutional.

In Waring Elementary, a 280-student magnet school in midtown St. Louis, a teacher spotted fourth-grader Raymond Raines bowing his head in prayer before lunch. The teacher stormed to Raymond's table, ordered him to stop immediately and sent him to the principal's office. The principal informed the young boy that praying was not allowed in school. When Raymond was again caught praying before meals on three separate occasions, he was segregated from other students, ridiculed in front of his classmates, and finally sentenced to a week's detention.
Before snack time in her kindergarten class in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., little Kayla Broadus held hands with two of her classmates and recited this prayer: "God is great, God is good, thank you, God, for my food." The alert teacher pounced on Kayla, severely reprimanded her, and reported her to the school administration. In short order, the principal sent a sternly worded letter to Kayla's parents advising them that Kayla was not allowed to pray in school, either aloud or with others. The school board then issued a press release crowing about its victory over a kindergartner praying before snack time.

Lynn Lucas Middle School outside of Houston, two sisters were prevented from bringing their Bibles into a classroom. The teacher stopped the students at the classroom door and marched them to the principal's office. The sisters' mother was called and warned that the school intended to report her to Child Protective Services. When the mother arrived, the teacher threw the Bibles in the wastebasket, shouting, "This is garbage!"

At the same school, Lynn Lucas Middle School, school administrators snatched three students' books with covers displaying the Ten Commandments, ripped the covers off, threw them in the garbage, and told the students that the Ten Commandments constituted "hate speech."
After the massacre at Columbine High School, students and families were invited to paint tiles above student lockers. The school district had earlier sent an army of secular "grief counselors" with – believe it or not - teddy bears to counsel students after the attack. Nonetheless, some students painted their tiles with so-called "objectionable" messages, such as: "On April 20th, 1999: Jesus Wept" and "God Is Love." The school could not stand it; they removed 90 tiles with offending religious messages. A federal court upheld the school's censorship of the religious tiles.
In Tupelo, Miss., school administrators methodically purged all Christmas carols of any religious content.

In Texas, a U.S. District judge decreed that any student uttering the word "Jesus" at his school's graduation would be arrested and locked up. Judge Samuel B. Kent said, and I quote "… make no mistake, the court is going to have a United States marshal in attendance at the graduation. If any student offends this court, that student will be summarily arrested and will face up to six months incarceration in the Galveston County Jail for contempt of court."

2 Timothy 1:7 gives us – and it’s good to consider this in the light to today’s anti-Christian climate – that we are given a sound mind – an intelligent mind – one that can witness, and reason, and endure. To speak out, not to shut up.