Threats To Religious Liberty

This is my third article of three that deal with religion. The first was a summary of the Pew Research study that included statistics on religious observance in America. Last week’s discussed how the Trump administration gave new life and delivered religion from the darkness it endured the past four years. 

But even though religion is making a comeback, I believe it is of vital importance, as a reminder, of the dangers that religion still faces. The following are brief accounts of the slings and arrows of outrageous and unfortunate circumstances of anti-religious fervor, where religion and Christ were diminished and insulted, and left at the mercy of secularism. 

> In a Catholic sailor’s funeral, aboard the U.S.S. Anzio, the Navy chaplain was saying the eulogy, but was later reprimanded for uttering the name “Jesus.”

> At Camp Liberty, Baghdad Iraq, the Army chaplain was ordered to revise his prayers at a funeral for a sergeant killed in action, and minimize his speaking the name of “Jesus.” 

> The Newton Correction facility in Des Moines, Iowa, offered the incarcerated a Bible-based prison program. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) filed a lawsuit against the program. A federal judge found for the plaintiff (AUSCS), ordered the Bible-based program out of the correction facility, and also ordered it to repay the state’s legal fee of $1.53 million.

> Nebraska State Senator Chambers filed a lawsuit against God. His complaint was that God caused “calamitous catastrophes resulting in widespread death, destruction, and terrorizing millions upon millions of the earth’s inhabitants, including innocent babes, infants, children, and infirm without mercy or distinction.”

> In today’s culture, people of faith are often subjected to derision and ambivalence. There are factions that exist only to intimidate and undermine religious institutions and those who worship God. The Freedom from Religion Foundation is one such group. They started their negative initiative on religion in Madison, Wisconsin, and then across the nation. It consisted of billboards that read “Imagine No Religion.” 

> The National Day of Prayer is an event held at the White House. During his presidency, Barack Obama decided to cancel this gathering of clergy and lay people, who wished to ask God for His mercy and guidance.

> The Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital has treated and cared for the seriously wounded men and women of the military for decades. The hospital posted new rules: “No religious items (i.e., Bibles, reading materials, and/or facts are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.”

> Times Square in New York City is recognized as the “Crossroads of the World.” The group calling itself American Atheists put up a billboard during the Christmas holiday: “Keep the Merry, dump the Myth.” The Merry was above an image of Santa Claus, and the myth was above the image of Jesus Christ. 

> MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, in the swearing-in ceremony for Barack Obama, demanded that he avoid using the Bible, saying it is “filled with things that no one in the United States of America believes.”

> In Tallahassee, Florida, “Happy Holidays,” read the billboard accompanied by the image of a fallen angel into a pit of fire. This hate-filled sarcastic display was the idea of the Satanic Temple.

> The storied Arlington National Cemetery is a place of reverence and a monument to the fallen military men and women, heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice. The ACLU and atheist groups brought a lawsuit and won, to force the Pentagon to remove all the crosses that mark the graves. This travesty is being appealed.

These are but a few of the many hate-filled anti-religion attempts made by entities seeking to mock Christ, and undermine and destroy religious influence. These groups fear what religion represents, the Judeo-Christian ethic, traditional family values, and how religion is an obstacle in their path to a society where secularism and moral relativism rule.